Knight's of Will
by TrueShine
Summary: Jaune and Cardin have been best friends for 7 years, and now they will finally take the first step towards their dream of becoming Huntsmen! Though they have their fair share of problems, personal & ancient ones. Will their long forgotten power called "Heart of Will" be enough to help them through it all? AU where Jaune & Cardin grew up together and Remnant is even weirder.
1. He's On a ROLL!

Arc: Introduction

Chapter 1: ON A ROLL!

 **A/N: First story! Woohoo!**

 **UPDATE: Reworked the whole thing to make it easier to read.**

 **I rated this T because their may be coarse language but that's about it. The violence won't be very graphic and should be suitable for people 15 and up considering what you can watch in a movie theater when your only 15 lately. If anyone thinks I should increase the rating then give me some good reason's and I will think on it.**

 **Anyways, the main character's will be a little OOC because this is an AU where Cardin and Jaune grew up very differently. Though I'll try to keep everyone's personality as close to cannon as possible. I kind of find Jaune's depressing sarcasm, self deprecation, and altogether awkward demeanor to be quite endearing.**

 **And useful to set up interesting plot points.**

 **Soooo for this introduction arc I wanted to get all the big parts of the knight duo's background out of the way. As in how the world of Remnant works in this AU, how Jaune and Cardin fight, and what their relationship with their families is like. I've come to understand a few basic things that apply to all people. One of those basic things being the person they holds dearest to them in life is how they will also see the world. So family is a pretty big influence on that.**

 **Don't worry though, I didn't kill off the lovable knights families. They are alive and happy!**

 **Almost...**

 **One person is reeeeeally angry.**

 **I will have most of the cannon events happen. Seeing as I still want team RWBY to be hero's in their own story, I love them to much to make them simple side characters in this one.**

 **So I've decided to have them fight separate bad guys, RWBY gets the White Fang plus Cinder and Co. Jaune and Cardin are going to fight something completely different. Buuuuut I'll be covering that around the end of this introduction arc, so for now enjoy the story!**

 **WARNING: There will be cursing, but not in a hateful or spiteful way for the most part. It's just how Koko communicates with people.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it belongs to its respective owners. I'm just a fan who has to much time on their hands, as well as a laptop.**

 **I also like my OC's, please don't take them from me.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

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* * *

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"Peace and no sorrow" - Leo Shine

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Our story begins with two young men, both of them are not particularly special. One is as strong as an enraged Ursa and the other is as weak as a flightless Nevermore. One has a quick temper, the other is patient and nearly impossible to anger. One wields a mace that explodes when he presses a pretty red button. The other has a sword and sheath, though he only recently started to learn how to use the sword.

Which brings me to the point about one is actually trained by his father to fight with their weapon. The other has only a limited amount of training from their father, who stopped teaching him at 12 and he's 17 now, but his twin sister often practiced with him so his swordsmanship is at least passing level. He's only been using a REAL sword for about four months though.

Even with their many differences, they are true friends. Only someone who knows both boys would understand that though. Both of them cover for each other's short comings with unwavering resolve. They would never abandon each other even if it meant being hurt.

Not to mention their similarly huge desires to become huntsman.

One boy's father view's huntsmen as warriors rivaling the Knights of Vale, but he did wish that BOTH of his son's could become knight's. But only one can and the other has no choice but to become a Huntsman.

The other boys father believed that he wasn't cut out to even wield a weapon, because he didn't have a 'Natural Arc Gift' for it like himself. He wasn't impressed by his son's knowledge in other things that he learned from watching his mother either, those things are: cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, knitting, dancing, and first aid.

Honestly speaking the boys never even wanted to become Knight's of Vale. Not that they think knights are not cool, they just didn't quite like the "knight life"(couldn't help it) of the city where they are stationed.

They want to become true hero's that fight for what they believe is right. They want to go on adventure's in the badlands that cover most of the world. They want to find what the nomadic tribes of Remnant have always been searching for...

The **Answer** _._

The **Answer** to the questions that have plagued the minds of the nomadic tribe's for hundreds of years. Why did the Grimm appear? Why do we praise Dust yet have no God? Why do we have a concept of what a God is, but no one has ever even started a religion? What are the Grimm Forests that cover our world? But the most important question they possess is one that the people inside the walled kingdoms would never even consider as odd.

Why does the moon shatter?

In one of the stories that the knight duo's Master has told them, it says that the moon didn't shatter in the past but eclipsed slowly as it's phases instead of breaking and reconstructing. The nomadic tribes believe that if they find the **Answer** to that one question, then all the other's would be answered as well.

But not all of the things that help them get along are profound. No, they share a very interesting hobby. This hobby is very, VERY important to the knight duo because it has saved their lives many times.

That hobby is so important, they would risk their lives to pursue it.

So amazing they just stop and stare at anything that has to do with it.

That hobby is...

PLANTS!

Yes, our knight duo has a beautiful hobby that includes rare plants that have temporary effects ranging from dragon-like-powers to becoming a human glow stick. With side effects that are just as strange. There are even flowers that the nomads used as a sort of Grimm repellant.

But alas, times up for my little intro. It seems the idiots got themselves into quite a good spot of trouble. So lets watch them and see if they will actually have the strength to stand up to this threat.

Or just die an early death, that's always a possibility as well.

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* * *

 _ **Somewhere in the King's Forest...**_

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It was a quite afternoon in the King's Forest. In a large clearing in the dense forest the only sounds are a nearby river and waterfall with the soft accompaniment of wind passing through the trees.

The many trees leaves were a soft orange, bright yellow, and royal purple mixed in varying amounts in the tree tops, no two trees looked the same. These leaves casted a welcoming shade over the roots and dark green grass below.

Surrounding half of the clearing is a tall cliff face that forms a arc in the jagged, near circular, clearing. The waterfall flows off of the cliff and down with great force. The river went down the center of the clearing, effectively halving the area. Two young men had their backs to that cliff face, sweating from the summer's afternoon sun beaming down on their black clothing and armor clad bodies.

Giving them a similar thought.

'Why the hell did I think a black long-sleeved shirt/thick hoodie was a good idea today?'

To the left is a deep river and waterfall crashing down. To the right is a thick forest with a large assortment of thorny bushes. Finally in front of the boys was one of the most wonderful things they'd ever seen.

About 30ft in front of them and past six incarnates of evil in the form of wolf-man-things.

"Yup, the forest is completely calm. Not a Grimm in sight Little Wolf! Even in this small beowolf territory." The boy rolled his eyes.

"This was probably the best plan you've had." The sarcastic young man spoke. His burnt orange hair matted with his own sweat. The gel that was keeping his hair slicked already deluded by that sweat long ago. His thin indigo colored eye's glanced towards the other young man next to him.

"Really you don't say?" Replied the blonde boy dryly.

The blonde boy heaved a sigh. "I think this plan was probably the stupidest plan ever." He raised a gloved hand to whip off the sweat from his brow.

The blonde heaved a defeated sigh, "Like, not even Leo would go along with it and he's already DEAD. Whatever made me think that the Grimm that live in this territory wouldn't be here, I will personally beat the crap out of."

His friend chuckled and he sent him a glare, "Heck, Master will probably shoot me for this one with some of her 'blonde roast' bullets. I'm just glad the alpha was killed by Master Koko a few days ago." Said the smaller of the two boys.

Moving his eye's back to the dark monstrosities in front of them. His calculating deep blue eye's scanned the pack for possible movements of attack. So far the beowolves have just watched them and waited. Without a leader they don't exactly know when to attack and since these ones are older then new borns they know how to wait and watch.

"Well there's only one thing left to do Little Wolf, you up for it?" Smirked the larger boy.

The blonde shrugged, "Not like we have a choice now do we? It's either run and live but miss out on getting a rare flora for when we go to Beacon's entrance exam in three days, let them eat us, or kill them and pray that the flower's don't get damaged. That won't end pretty for ANYONE here."

They both shivered, those flowers they want to get are extremely dangerous after all. Especially when they are disturbed or damaged.

The boy's short blonde locks feel around his face. White armor snuggly fastened on his body, brown fingerless gloved hands tightening on his sword and shield. His feet started shifting into a basic sword and shield stance that was a little rigid. Feet spread apart and body low to the ground he had his shield raised and held his sword awkwardly at his side.

 _'Okay sis, lets see if I can actually use this piece of metal!'_ The blonde boy glanced at the sword and then his shield, _'Even if I screw up with the sword I can still protect myself with my shield. I've had the shield for six years after all and only got the sword a few months ago.'_ The boy gave a heavy sigh and then shook his head, steeling his gaze at the beowolves.

His comrade in arm's took the silent hint and moved into a more stable stance with his black mace.

Turning his body sideways with his back facing his pal, all the while never breaking eye contact with the beowolf in front of him. The mace wielder hefted his mace into a stance where his right hand wielding it has the middle of the maces shaft propped up on his right shoulder, knee's bent and feet apart with his left hand stretched out and palm facing out at the beowolf he has kept his eye contact with.

"Since we both know we're going with the third option, I suspect you got a plan Little Wolf." Indigo eye's narrowed further at the black beast.

"Yup, just the usual though, you take the three beowolves on the right and I'll take the three on the left. We'll rush them on the count of three, does that sound good to you? Little Cardinal?" The blonde asked coldly with a hint of fear in his voice, never moving his gaze from the enemy.

"Sound's good to me." The mace wielder whispered with short breath. Not with just fear for his life, but with anticipation for what's to come.

 _'And that was a lot of 'threes'. I guess he's TRIPLE sure it will work.'_ The cardinal sniggered.

"Okay, one." Said the blonde swordsman a little louder than a whisper. The larger of the two leaned a bit forward readying to charge.

"Two" Spoke the mace wielder, now the knight duo pressed their back feet into the ground and leaned on the forward foot pointing them each at their target's.

Blood red eye's piercing through the slits in the wolves natural bone masks at the knight duo. What looked to be a soft orange flame's lit from the soles of their feet. The beowolves must have noticed the boy's reading their attack, because they readied themselves to lunge at the sword and mace wielder's.

" **THREE!** " Bellowed the boy's in unison as they disappeared for a second and reappeared before their first targets.

.

* * *

 _ **At the moment they charged...**_

.

 **BAM!**

He made the first move and smashed his mace with one hand into the side of a beowolves ribcage, sending it's heaping body at a tree. Killing his target instantly.

 _'One-hit wonder of the week!'_ smirked the boy.

Still following the momentum of his swing he lifted his back foot off the ground slightly and completed the 360 spin with a sickening crack as the cage of thick blades that make the head of his mace was imbedded in the side of the second beowolves head.

 **CRACK! STOMP!**

Smashing his foot into the ground when his mace hit it's target, he grabbed his mace with both hands and launched the corpse attached to his mace at the third beowolf with a kick to its chest, the sole of his foot still burning with the orange flame.

 **WHACK! THUD!**

"HERE YOU GO!" yelled the boy with vigor! Both beowolves, corpse and living, fell and within seconds the third wolf's head was smashed in by the mace wielder.

Pivoting on his foot to turn to his right and see how his companion was doing. His eye's quickly scanned the area.

Just as he suspected... His pal was doing not so fantastic.

"Dammit Jaune! At least TRY to use your sword!" Yelled the burnt orange hot-head.

His pale skin glistening in sweat as black sludge like blood from the beowolves he'd killed was dissipating off his steel gold trimmed armor and black clothing, luckily the red sash and satchels around his waist can't get stained by the blood of the incarnates of darkness seeing as it disappears as though it was never there. A good thing about fighting Grimm in his opinion.

.

* * *

 _ **At the moment they charged...**_

.

 _'Okay Jaune you can do this!'_ He thought to himself as he bashed the beowolf in front of him with his white shield making it see stars.

 _'Masters "instant movement" technique is fantastic!"_ The blonde didn't have time to think anymore as the second beowolf came at him from behind the stunned first.

 **THUNK!**

Jaune rose his sheild and dug his heels into the ground. The orange flames roared to life again and he kicked of, hitting the stunned first and lauching it into the second. Before he could cheer for his inginuity, a flash of black caught his eye and he rose his shield to intercept the third beowolves swipe towards the side of his head.

 **SHINK! SHHHHRIK!**

Angling his shield to deflect the blow and force the beowolf to follow the path of it's claw. Sword hand now glowing with the orange flame, Jaune then thrust his trusty(?) sword below the shield straight through the beowolves vulnerable side and ripped it through the beasts black body. Successfully bisecting the monster and sending it's black blood across the dark green grass. Some of the blood landed on Jaune's white armor and face.

Jaune also had the added "bonus" of having his arms spread out wide in a completely open and vulnerable way with that attack. Now he was sure to be getting tackled by one of the now recovered beowolves he didn't finish off!

A single thought went through his mind the moment he saw the beowolf charge at him from over his shoulder.

'More then sure my gravestone will read: "Here lies the Failure Arc. As much of a failure in combat as he was in life. - Love Dad" '

 **THWAK!**

Luckily the black beasts claws struck the back of the Jaune's chest plate, the shield barer instinctively raised his kite shield to cover his head before they hit the ground. The white metal protecting him from gaping jaw of beowolf, aiming for his throat.

 **THUD!**

'Note to self: Thank Mom for giving you the suppossibly useless family heirloom and giving you money to buy some armor, they saved your life.'

Jaune internally chuckled at his way of thinking. He's scared to death of fighting, but fights anyways. That isn't what is funny to him though. What's funny is that he's fighting for his life and his thoughts are hardly anything a normal person would think about in his situation.

Or even anything cool.

 _'I have had WAY to many near death experiences...'_ Jaune thought dryly as the Beowolf was trying to naw and claw through his shield to rip his throat out.

 _'Good thing these young beowolves are idiots, or I'd already have had my legs and butt chewed off.'_ The blonde knight rolled his eye's at that thought while his face was being pushed into the ground by the beowolf's swipes at his shield.

"Could!"

 **WHACK!**

 **THUD!**

Jaune's face promptly met the ground.

"You!"

 **WHACK!**

 **THUD!**

And again.

"STOP!?"

 **WHACK!**

 **THUD!**

And again...

 _'Huh, so this is what dirt and frustration taste like together... I can't wait to find out what dirt and soul crushing defeat's flavor will be.'_ Thought the blonde knight as he had his face pressed further into the ground by another swing from the beowolf. Since he had dropped his sword and is in no position to get it without dieing, he has to wait for his best friend to rescue him.

 _'Any second now...'_ Jaune thought dryly as he waited for his friend to save him. In the mean time Jaune would become closer to nature, him and the dirt are practically best friends now with how close they are!

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* * *

 _ **A little bit after Jaune screwed up...**_

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" **HELL NO!** " Screamed the mace wielder as he used his 'Instant movement' skill to get over to his pal. With one decisive strike, he swung his mace upwards into the beowolf's stomach as it trided to claw through Jaune's shield.

 **THUNK! SWOOSH!**

The beowolf was launched high into the sky and landed some ways away from the boys. After seeing it's comrade get launched the last member of the group, who finally got control of itself, lunged at the mace wielding menace. Jaune shifted to a sitting position looked up at his friend's angry glare at the now dead beowolf.

"Thank you for choosing Mea Culpa airlines. My mace, Mea Culpa, is not responsible for any injuries so don't even try suing." Smirked the sarcastic mace wielder as Jaune laughed at his comment. He looked down at his friend and gave him a friendly smirk.

"Thanks-LOOK OUT!" Jaune grabbed his pals leg and pulled it out from under him. Now forced to lean backwards at a 90 degree angle at the knees, the mace wielder caught himself with his left hand his right hand clutched tightly to Mea Culpa.

Wide eyed the burnt orange knight watched as a black blur with sharp teeth and sharper claws flew right over where his head was. The mace wielder and Jaune quickly scrambled to their feet as the monstrosity landed and turned around with a blood curdling howl. Jaune shifted his foot to just under the hilt of Crocea Mors and in one fluid motion threw it straight up to his hand. Giving it a little twirl when he caught it.

 _'Finally! I did something cool!'_ Jaune had to surpress himself from letting his glee out in front of his bestfriend who was now staring daggers at the beowolf.

"Little Wolf." spoke the hot-head as he glared at the black beast, his eerily calm tone cutting through the mostly silent forest. Upon hearing his tone Jaune completely calmed down and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly.

"Yeah Little Cardinal?" Jaune was the same as his pal now. The same eerily calm tone seeped from his words. A soft orange flame started etching a pair of yellow crescent moons on his cheeks, just like the symbol on Crocea Mors' shield. His pal having the same colored flame tracing a gold wing over his right eye. Still in a calm stat the orange haired boy spoke.

"Let's make Master proud and show that herbivore our-"

"-TRUE POWER!" The boy's screamed in unison and rushed the beast.

 **SMASH! WHOMP! THUNK!**

Jaune instant movements into the beowolf with his sheild raised, launching the monstrosity off its feet! The mace touting menace then instant movements right past Jaune, mace in both hands raised over his left shoulder, and then swings it at the beowolve in the middle of its flight. Once the head of the mace connected an explosion is set off, shredding through the beowolf's flesh and bone. Launching it further in front of the boy's.

The beowolf's corpse rolls as it dissipates leaving a trail of black sludge like blood and scared earth from its corpses travel through the clearing. The symbols on their faces also fading away like the very Grimm they just killed, like they were never even there.

Jaune caught up with his buddy and they gave each other a high five, low five, spinning double-five, and all other kinds of fives known to mankind.

"ALRIGHT!" Yelled the mace wielder while Jaune laughed. The duo still had adrenaline running through them from their resent near death experience.

"What's with that look Cardin?" Jaune asked his comrade with a puzzled look. Cardin had one of his rare smiles that actually DON'T look menacing or evil.

"Hehe..." Cardin chuckled still smiling brightly as he pointed to the scarred earth and lifeless body of the downed beowolf.

"I guess he was... ON A ROLL!" Bursting out with laughter the boy's basked in the glory of surviving another encounter with death.

"Come on, we should hurry up and get those Bomb Bulb." Jaune patted his partners shoulder and walked back to the cliff they had their backs to a little bit ago.

"Yeah, I'm sure Leo and Master are bored out of there skulls with editing Masters book." Chuckled Cardin as Jaune and him went over to a small crack in the cliff face. Inside was a thatched basket and brown knapsack containing several kinds of flowers, berries, seeds, roots, and vines.

"By the way, why do they call them Bomb Bulb's if they're like grenades?" Cardin squinted his eyes and struck a thinking pose with his arms crossed. "I mean, all you have to do is pull a single petal and then the whole bulb slowly lights up. It blows up in a matter of seconds but you still got the time to toss it like a granade... Before the thing turns into a mini hurricane of death firing a ton of razor sharp petals everywhere."

 _'Who ever thought of that name and whatever deity decided to make this plant must have been nuts.'_ Thought the burnt orange knight as he rolled his eyes.

Jaune held up his pointer finger but then brought it to his chin, taking the same pose as Cardin almost. "I don't really know..."

They furrowed their brows in contemplation, trying and failing to figure out this mystery.

"Meh, might as well not think to hard about it and just grab the thing." Shrugged the swordsmen. Soon the duo retrieved their supplies and went to get those Bomb Bulb's before heading back to their Master's cottage.

.

* * *

 _ **An hour of walking later...**_

.

"We're back!" yelled the blonde knight with a huge grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye's. Cardin carried a brown knapsack full of seeds, roots, and vines. Jaune was carrying a basket with strange flowers, some of them were even glowing a little bit.

The building they walked into was a fairly large cottage with sturdy logs covered in moss on the outside and spotless walls on the inside. Floors of sturdy polished wood lined every walking space in the cottage. The interior walls that weren't part of the outside were a light brown. Pictures of a bear faunus women standing with many people in photo's lined the walls...

Well, it was more like placed between the guns that lined the walls.

One look and its obvious that the main attraction in the cottage is that all over the walls were gun racks completely loaded with no space for new ones, and in several corners boxes of many kinds of ammunition. Anyone would believe this place was some sort of government armory, secretly hidden in the middle of a Grimm Forest between a friendly little village and a large city.

Besides the display of its large amount of artillery that could arm at least 30 people to the teeth, the building was practically spotless. You'd have to search out the dust and dirt if you wanted to find it, and even then you'd find very little.

The room they walked into was likely the den, with its large fireplace and leather furniture. There was two large couches with a single coffee table between them, the other two ends of the coffee table were occupied by armchairs. Fortunately they were gun and ammunition free for your tired legs.

The only electronics that seemed to be inside the building were the lights, TV and gaming console upstairs, and appliances in the kitchen. You could see the entire kitchen over the bar counter separating the den from the kitchen that was to the lovable duo's left. The bar counter had a perfect wood finish and the separating half-wall the counter was on has a sleak black paneling.

The bar counter was in the middle of the kitchen/den boundary making two exits/entrances. So you have to walk around the bar to enter and exit the kitchen and or den. Just outside the Kitchen and a little ways from the entrance in the middle of the cabin, is a staircase that leads up to a loft.

The loft is were the TV plus console and four twin beds plus foot chests are all nicely fitted into the space. The space between the kitchen and staircase is a hallway that leads to the library at the end of the straight path and a single bathroom on the right wall. From its appearance anyone could tell that this place has quite a few visitors.

Most of them the adventurous sort if the pictures on the walls are anything to go by. Heck one of the guys in those pictures has a mustache that covers his entire mouth and was standing ontop of an outrageously big boarbatusk corpse!

The knight duo put the bag and basket on the coffee table next to a peculiar long sword. The sheath was black with a orange cresent moon that has a star on the inside of the curve, this symbol is on the very center of the sheath. The bottom and top of the sheath has silver trimming and the entire sheath looked to be recently polished.

The hilt of the sheathed sword is a silver guard shaped like a rectangle bent in a small arc pointing towards the grip, the guard has several runes engraved in it from a language mostly forgotten. From what they were able to figure out, each rune was a single word: Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Wood, Light, and Dark.

Orange rappings were on the grip and looked to be newly replaced. The grip and pummel are made of the same black metal as the blade and sheath that seemed to always give off a strong sense of power. The pummel was in the shape of a black crescent moon with a star, just like the symbol on the sheath. Next to that sword was a empty plain leather sheath that looked the same size as the black one. The difference is that the leather sheath had a strap on it to slig it over the weilders back, a spare strap was hooked onto the black sheath.

"Took you two long enough! I was getting really bored here!" A LITERAL ghost of a young man, probably around 18, came walking through the wall that had the library just on the other side.

"You know I can't go anywhere without that sword right? I know I've been dead a long time and I'm grateful for you both taking me with you. But the last thing I wanted to do was help a crazy women edit her smut books." The tanned, slim, and well toned young man pouted.

Wearing no shirt, he had medium length wavy brown hair slicked back out of his face. His left cheek has a straight thin scar running up from his jawline to just the middle of his cheek. On his left ear was a dangling earring, held on the end of the short chain from his earlob was an orange crescent moon and star shaped gem. His chest, abdomen, and arms are covered in small nick's and scars probably from sword fights and or sharp claws. Black and fuzzy animal skin pants covered his legs to his ankles. The pants were held up by a thin brown leather strip looped through stiched on belt loops and tide in a knot at the front. To cement the young man's cave man apperance, he has bare feet. His lion tail was swishing back and forth behind him as he pouted.

Tapping his foot on the floor, without making noise, and crossing his arms the young man inspected the boys infront of him with questioning soft orange eye's that are reminiscent of the orange color you see during dawn or dusk.

The blonde skinny looking boy Jaune and the taller more muscular burnt orange haird Cardin stood infront of the apparition.

The blonde boy, looked to be at least 17. Jaune wore a black hoodie with red-orange lining on the inside that's sleves reached to just his elbows and old jeans with simple sneakers on his feet. Strapped to his chest was a white chest armor and his upper arms adorned similar white plates all fascined onto him with brown leather straps. His forearms are covered by red-orange leather sleeve-like bracers with black elbow pads attached. Jaune's hands were covered by brown fingerless gloves with hard black leather palms.

Two crossed belts around his waist had an assortment of things attached to them. A length of rope was hooked to one of the belts and both belts held pouches to store various things like lovely plant's, a sewing kit, medical bandages, weird tonics that he makes from plants, a pocket knife, and whatever else he may need. You can't tell because of the jeans and hoodie but he has a broad chest and well toned legs and back muscles, due to hours of training with his twin sister and Master.

Jaune stood scratching the back of his scruffy blonde hair with an awkward, 'hehe, please forgive me?' smile. Jaunes deep blue eye's looking right at the apparition's orange ones.

Standing with his arms crossed and thin indigo eye's looking off to the side, face in his ever present natural scowl. Cardin, the tallest one in the room, stood with now messy short burnt orange hair. He also looked to be at least 17. Steel, gold trimmed amor was draped over his body.

He wore a chest plate with gold trimming around the edges and a bird with its wings outstreched on the center of his chest plate. He had shoulder guards as well as loose plates on his thighs. All of the plates were fitted onto his person with black leather straps. A large band of steel encases his biceps with vambraces covering his forearms, there is a generous amount of space between the armor for his elbows to move unhindered. Steel leggings starting from just below his knee to his ankles guarded his calves and shins. His steel plated boots made his already heavy steps even louder.

Under his armor he wore a black long-sleeved shirt with red lining and black pants held up by a red sash/belt. Two small ash grey satchels were crisscrossed around his red sash, he stores tonics and plants in them along with a small hunting knife with a serrated edge.

Cardin looked far more like a knight then his awkward counterpart.

Cardin spoke up first, "Don't blame us, Master is the one that wanted you to stay and help with her writing. After all its not everyday you have an amnesiac ghost attached to a sword and sheath as a convenient house guest when you want to write a new series of books. Since you agreed to help her write it you should help with the damn editing to, rule number three Leo." Cardin started pouting himself as he spoke, pursing his lips and glaring at the crate of ammuntion nearest to him when he finished talking.

"By the way, how is the memory thingy going? You remember anything but your name and the swords yet?" Jaune smoothly changed the topic with great finesse. After years of dealing with seven sisters and a hot-headed best friend you have to develope this life saving skill.

"We didn' find anythin' little animals." Spoke a strong female voice. "What we did find is that Leo MIGHT be an old enemy of the Knights of Vale though."

Slightly limping out of the libraby and stoping at the bar counter to lean her back on it to face her guests, was a women in her 20s. With honey brown hair and a chocolate brown left eye. Her right eye had a scar straight down the middle starting from just above her eye brow and ending at her check bone, an eyepatch is placed over that eye.

She looked at the three boys in her den, taking the cigarette out of her mouth and scratching the back of her short brown hair with her other hand. After a few seconds the women closed her eye removing her free hand from the back of her head and lifting both her elbows to rest on the counter she's been leaning on hands hanging limply while she groaned from the coming headache.

Her hair was extremely short to the point of it just being a little bit past the growth line and poking at odd ends like she just got out of bed. She wore a simple dark brown tanktop with the word "Koko" in light tan color accross the lower back part of the tanktop, the O's in Koko were replaced with bear paw outlines. Around her neck was a thin chain necklace with a silver pendant shaped like a calm bear face and a little brown gem, the size of a small marble, was in the center of its forehead.

The necklace felt alive and the knight duo didn't know why, but they felt like today they'd find out.

Her tan cargo pants are tucked into brown leather steel toed boots, clips and bullets could be heard ratteling in the many pockets of her pants. She had similar belts to Jaunes with all the same pouches plus rope. Rapped around her thighs are two dark brown leather pistol holsters with her favorite guns, Scream and Shout stored in them. Her knees are protected by steel plated knee pads. The brown bear ears on top of her head twitched as she listened to her surroundings.

"Yup! Turns out I might have killed one of your ancestors Jaune and even tortured Cardins for a couple months!" Leo said with a cheery tone and a bright smile like nothing was wrong in the world.

 **SLAP!**

Three heads turned with quirked eyebrows to look at the women, she now had her head leaned back and her free hand's palm dead center on her forehead. The cigarette in her other hand hanging limply between her finger and thumb.

"You could show a lil' more tact when ya talk 'bout shit like that, ya shitty cub." groaned the women as she dragged her hand down her face.

"Whoops, guess your right Koko." The apparition responed with an apologetic nod.

"Can't that little shit ever take anythin' seriously?" Koko rolled her eyes as the apparition scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

"You alright Master? That sounded like it hurt, alot." Jaune said while raising a finger to point at his own forehead.

"Pfft, Master is fine Little Wolf! Hell if she got brain damage from that it might make her a little less of a, LOCO KOKO." Cardin smirked at Koko as she turned her face to glare at him with narrowed eye's. Her face was quite child like, with round cheeks, a small button nose, and a pointed chin. Though right now the main attraction of her face is the red handprint on her forehead.

"I guess you're right..." Jaune stated with mirth as he tried to hold back his amusement. Leo on the other hand was laughing so hard he was crying! Or he would be crying if he wasn't a ghost.

Koko's eye's shadowed over and a chill ran through the room. She hated Cardin's puns and often let him know that verbally AND physically. The three boys all stopped dead in their tracks as they felt the temperature drop, all three broke out into cold sweats. Well I guess two of them, ghost's can't sweat afterall.

"What's rule number three boys?" Said the bear faunus who now possessed an eerily calm tone as the small orange fire etched a brown bear's paw over her left eye. The boy's gulped in response and said as one.

"Grit your teeth after you make the first swing."

There was screaming that day, the sound of a young man pleading and a little girl could be heard for miles.

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* * *

 _ **Thirty minutes later...**_

.

Jaune and Cardin were each laying down on the couches across from each other. Armor off and placed with their weapons behind their respective couches. Jaune also shed his hoodie and draped it over the back of the couch showing his orange t-shirt. Icepacks were clutched in both of the knight's hands and pressed against the wounds from their grand battle.

In other words, they're nursing the wounds they received from Koko in a completly one sided fight.

"So how do you guys feel about your test for Beacon in three days?" Leo asked from one of the armchairs, being a ghost meant not being able to get hurt by physical objects. That means the only thing Koko can do is ground him to the house for a while as punishment.

"I think we got it." Grunted Cardin as he winced from the cold finally getting to him. He repositioned the icepack on another bruise from the rubber bullets Koko shot them with.

Cardin and Jaune had each taken a short shower after they got beaten up by Koko, so they didn't look nearly as bad as they had AFTER they got beaten up by her. They were already covered in dirt and small cuts from being in the forest, but Koko had given them some bruises and MORE cuts.

Plus Cardin's hair was the way he liked it now, gelled and awesome.

"You know what the Little Sparrow will do if we mess up, and since she'll BE there at the exam we have to pass." Cardin said while rolling his eyes. Jaune chuckled at his answer, and then winced from the pain.

"An Arc and Winchester never go back on their word. We promised her that we'd all go to Beacon together, and I also promised my sister." Jaune stated with a goofy smile towards Leo, who returned the gesture.

"Besides," The blonde got up on his elbows, "it can't be any harder then being launched into a Grimm Forest without a landing strategy." Jaune managed to say with a pained goofy smile from moving positions. He flopped back down onto the couch after he said his piece.

"Damn Master, you could have been a little more gentle it was a pretty damn good pun." Cardin said as he got on one elbow to burn a hole through the back of the bear faunus's head with a glare. Koko was preparing lunch for them all before they had to start their Test of Mastery. It was her way of telling her students, "Sorry for being so rough" before they started training as well as a thank you for all they've done for her.

After all, they help her out with pretty much anything she needs. Sure she trains them how to survive, fight bare handed, tried to teach them how to shoot guns too (failed horribly), and not to mention teaching them lost techniques from her tribe that was wiped out 10 years ago.

But the little animals are always so ready and willing to help anyone that needs them, never once complaining about what is asked of them. That's what makes Koko proud to call them her students.

"Ya got a point, but then again, I'm a bear that got cooped up in a library for the last three days to reach a Dust foresaken deadline." She grumbled as she watched the stir fry while adding in some more spices. They couldn't see with her back towards them, but Koko was smiling mischievously.

"I don't think that warrent's kicking us both in the head and shooting us with rubber bullets." Deadpanned the blonde knight who then glanced at his partner in pain. Cardin gave him a grunt of agreement and fell back down onto the couch.

 _'Why are all the wemon in my life violent/cruel?'_ Mentally grumbled Cardin and Jaune respectively.

"Anyways!" Leo stood up and clapped his hands silently.

"I didn't know that the Little Sparrow was coming to watch your guy's entrance exam." Leo looked at Cardin with a curious face as he somehow plopped back down on the armchair.

How he doesn't faze through is something they will never know.

Cardin just stared at the ceiling as he spoke with an unreadable expression, "I told the Little Sparrow about a month ago when her father sent her to talk with that herbivore, Mr. Dilkan I think?" Cardin looked at Jaune perplexed.

"Dilan is his name Cardin, he's had to introduce himself to you at least 15 times now." Jaune chuckled and rolled his eyes at him. "At least try to remember him."

"He's a herbivore, he doesn't matter." Cardin grumbled at his blonde friend, getting a laugh from Leo and Koko with an amused sigh from Jaune.

"Anyways! It was at the Dust mine just outside Black City. That mine isn't far from my home so she sent me a message that she was nearby." Cardin visibly shivered at the thought of their encounter. "Since the herbivore was there she had her persona on so her father wouldn't become suspicous, and nearly froze the herbivore to death with a glare when he told her about the bad news of some White Fang stealing more Dust."

Cardin's natural scowl intensified, "No doubt her father would have fired the herbivore without a second thought and then get the poor guy thrown in jail for something or other. But the Little Sparrow helped him out with opening up a new tunnel so they could make up the difference, though she told us we had to keep it a secret from everybody who wasn't present for her plan."

Cardin's gaze grew with even more rage as he continued. "If what she's told us about her father is true. Then it's only a matter of time before that bastardous icy puppet master starts pulling her strings to carry out his own darker side of the buisness." Cardin and Jaune started glaring daggers at the ceiling that could rival the Little Sparrows, and she nearly gave Jaune a heart attack with her glare once.

"And we won't ever let that happen." Cardin hissed out as Jaune and him continued to glare at the ceiling. The knight duo took a deep breath to calm themselves down before they activate their Crest Sight from the intense anger.

"Don't worry lil' animals. If shit hits the fan, you know for a fact that we'll all be there to help kick the Ice Kings ass. Hell we even got the Ursai Triad on our side now and they are keeping good tabs on them White Fang shit heads in Vale!" Koko looked over her shoulder and the duo sat up to meet her gaze. "Ever since the Little Sparrow met you two she's slowly becoming a better and stronger person. She may still be a cranky birdy, but with the both of ya as her friends, all the lies and pain her father put her through will become less and less of a burden with time." Koko gave the two of them a bright honest smile as she said this. Instantly calming them down as they returned the gesture.

"Anyways, you should be worrying about the test I'M giving you numbskulls." Koko gave the knight duo a cheeky grin. "After all, if ya fail my Test of Mastery ya won' even get to take Beacons exam." The knight duo swallowed hard at that.

"Anyways boys, it's time to eat!" Koko chuckled as they all perked up at the mention of food.

"Thank you Master!" Jaune sprang to his feet and had to grab his head from the pain of the sudden movement. He groaned as he made his way to the kitchen in a slump.

'What made me think jumping up was a good idea? Ugh... Your an idiot Jaune, you're an idiot.'

"Oooooh stir fry! My favorite! Well at least it might be, after all I can't eat! Death Jooooooooke!" Sang the lion faunus.

"Really?" Koko looked at Leo with a deadpan, who only smiled at her in return.

"Yer the most fucked up ghost I've ever met..." Groaned the bear faunus while shaking her head.

"I'm the only ghost you've ever met Koko!" Beamed the ghostly lion.

The burnt orange knight slowly got up and made his way over to his friends, silent all the while. Just enjoying their usual antics.

 _'These last seven years of training have been nothing but trouble, and I wouldn't change it for the world.'_ Cardin had a ghost of a smile and then started to blink a bit in realization.

 _'Oh Dust... I'm turning into a sap like Jaune...'_ Cardin gave a sigh of defeat and decided to increase the amount of teasing he dishes out to his best friend.

Jaune was thinking of something completely different while he dug into his meal. _'Master will be testing our mastery of Heart of Will today. I wonder what that test will be like...'_ Jaune looked down at his partly eaten stir fry and gulped.

'She only makes stir fry when we are going to be doing something super painful.'

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* * *

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 **A/N**

 **Alright first things first, I will be putting quotes at the top of every chapter. These quotes will almost always have something to do with the story. They may be from the chapter itself or from a chapter in the future.**

 **I'm now going to explain the vague quote I chose:**

 **"Peace and no sarrow." - Leo Shine**

 **Because in this chapter you see that Leo is a very cheery individual and you'll come to find out that he tries to always find the good in the bad. The reason I wen't with a quote he didn't even say in this chapter is because he will be saying it a LOT in later chapter's, because that's his way of saying "goodbye" and "things will get better".**

 **So in this first chapter I gave snippets of their family lives and introduce two important OC's I've made for Cardin and Jaune's adventures. Koko the bear faunus and Master of the knight duo who has been teaching them how to fight for roughly 7 years. And Leo a lion faunus that is also a ghost attached to a sword and sheath. He also has amnesia and only vaguely remembers his past.**

 **Tell me what you think about them!**

 **And before any of you ask, yes Leo made a joke about death similar to Brook from One Piece. Oh! If you can't picture Koko's hair style then think of how Zoro had his hair before New World. But brown instead of spring green.**

 **Tell me if my fight scene flowed nicely!**

 **I need to know if it was good or not so critisim would be fantastic.**

 **Now to point out obvious questions:**

 **What's Heart of Will? What is that strange orange flame? What are the Grimm Forests? Who's "Little Sparrow"? What's their Test of Maserty? and most importantly...**

 **Who's the bombastic looking man with the mustache standing on a giant boarbatusk corpse in that photo?!**

 **You'll find the answer to some of these questions next chapter! Which is full of world development and what the orange flames are, It's not Aura or dust I'll tell you that much.**

 **I'd love for some reviews to pop up with constructive critisism. If you liked it tell me your favorite part, if you hated it tell me why, if you don't care either way... Just know that I will never forget you even if you leave a one letter review.**

 **Just not a Q, I don't like the letter Q. No idea why really.**

 **Thanks for reading! Laters!**


	2. It's un-BEAR-able!

Arc: Introduction

Chapter 2: It's un-BEAR-able!

 **A/N: Here we go again!**

 **UPDATE 12/17: Reworked this chapter with better spelling and grammar. Apparently when I put the file up some of the words I had were removed from sentences. That must have really sucked to figure out so I fixed that.**

 **Tell me if it's a good change please, and if I should go back into the first chapter and do the same thing.**

 **This chapter will be about some of the things mentioned in the last chapter. Namely instant movement, Crest Sight, and Heart of Will, as well as what those orange flames actually are.**

 **Yes, Cardin has plenty of bad puns for this chapter.**

 **WARNING: There will be cursing and horrible puns.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it belongs to its respective owners. I'm just a fan who has to much time on their hands, as well as a laptop.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

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* * *

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 _"Every ending, is really just a new beginning."_ \- Kilika's Final Words

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Resting at the bar counter in Koko's humble abode was Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester. Both sitting on the sleek backless bar stoles without their armor or weapons, completely defenseless without a care.

After they finished lunch 30 minutes ago, Koko left to the library just down the hall next to them. The author said something about putting some final touches on her book. Leo was "sitting" on the railing of the stair case, it was more like floating, reading a book about a man with two souls.

Now the idiot duo was just talking about this and that while they waited on Koko.

Everything was right in the world, sure their bruises still hurt but the pain had numbed. Now they are ready to take the Test of Mastery for their Heart of Will, this is the day they would be finishing their seven years of near death training. Nothing could ruin this sunshiny day.

Or so they thought.

Leo heard a faint evil chuckle that sounded all to familiar. His head flew up from his book and orange eyes widened as the ghost registered what was about to happen. Thinking quickly he said the only thing that came to mind.

"DUCK!" Leo cried out to his friends, but it was to late.

"BANZAI!" Came the grizzly gunners war cry.

" **GAAAAH!** "

 **SMACK!**

 **THUNK!**

 **CRASH!**

Koko had come flying at the duo with a powerful drop kick to Cardin's arm. Sending Cardin flying right into his partner as they fell off their bar stools and onto the wood floor of Koko's cabin with a loud crash.

" **A LITTLE SOONER WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE CASPER!** " Yelled the burnt orange hot-head. As soon as he got his barings, Cardin sat up and sent a pointed glare at the ghostly lion faunus.

"At least I tried! How was I susposed to know that Koko was going to drop kick you two?!" Retorted Leo crossing his scar covered arms in front of his bare chest as Cardin slowly picked himself up off the ground. Koko did a back-hand-spring while she laughed at their little exchange. Extremely giddy about her surprise attack.

'I'm going to show that gun touting smut author what happens when you-wait a minute.'

"Hey..." Cardin squinted as he looked around behind him. "Where'd Jaune go?"

Then Cardin stepped on something, he pushed down on the strange something with his foot just a little bit harder without checking what it was. He was to busy searching the walls and floor for a Jaune sized hole to care.

'Okay, where's Wiley Jaune's cartoon like hole at? There should be some large hole somewhere. It may not be just like Wiley Cyote's holes that are his shape, but it'd still be a pretty big hole.'

"So..." Came a strained voice from the floor.

"This is what pain and floor polish taste like together..." Sighed the voice beneath the strong armed boys boot.

 _'What am I? A character from a Saturday morning cartoon?'_ Thought the squashed blonde knight dryly.

'If I didn't know how to use my Heart of Will, I'd be dead by now...'

Cardin's eyes widened as he looked down at the floor only to find his partner in crime sprawled out and face down on the floor, with his boot squarely on the back of the blondes head. Guilt came over him for that moment and he immediately took his foot off his best friends head.

Cardin's guilt really did only last for that moment.

Needless to say, when the group looking at the blondes sad state registered what he said. They all, including Jaune, bursted out laughing. Jaune rolled onto his back and tipped his head to stop the nosebleed. His rather large best friend DID just crash into him, and then made it worse by stepping on him.

Which possibly broke his nose.

"You are one depressing guy you know that?" Cardin said as he finally gained control of his laughter. The mace wielder reached a hand down to his best friend who gladly accepted it. As Cardin pulled Jaune off the cold and professionally polished wood floor, Koko had finally finished laughing.

"Mind if I barrow that line for a book?"

Jaune's humor might have be crude and depressive/painful, but the blonde enjoyed making those kinds of jokes because he knows that bad things have a tendency to follow him. He uses that strange sense of humor to lighten the mood whenever those bad things happen, which is quite often for the loveable doofus.

"Sure, I don't mind." Jaune rolled his eyes as he kept his head tilted up.

"I could use some tissues though, Cardin's foot crushed my face. More specifically my nose..." Cardin looked to the side with a little guilt as Leo retrived some tissues for Jaune.

"Here you go!" Cheery as ever Leo handed him a box of tissues.

"Thanks Leo." Jaune smiled at the friendly ghost, then stuffed his nose with tissues to stop the bleeding. So with nothing to do now, Jaune did everything in his power to think good thoughts...

'Don't sneeze. Don't sneeze. Don't sneeze.'

Were Jaune's good thoughts.

"No problem, I just wish I could pick up my "Anchor of Doom" like I can pick up everything else." Chuckled the ghostly lion as he made air quotes around the nickname he gave his sword, Stars Legacy. Jaune could see the frustration in his eyes and frowned, but before he could say anything Cardin butted in.

"Okay now that we got Jaune's nosebleed under control, I think it's about time we got onto the reason why you freaking FALCON KICKED us." Glared the very unhappy hot-head as he rubbed his aching arm.

'What the hell made me NOT think about putting my armor back on? Well if I did Jaune might have really died. Oh yeah theirs that to.'

"Also the two of us don't have Aura's so we can't heal nearly as quickly as you Master." Cardin increased the intensity of his glare. "So lighten up dammit! If we didn't know how to use Heart of Will, Jaune might have freaken died under my weight!"

"Oh come on Cardin!" Leo joined in, "Your not fat, just big and muscly!" The ghost waved away his notion of Cardin being fat with a smile.

"I know that Leo." Scowled the currently mace-less mace user.

"Well I'm done with editing now so it's 'bout time we got started with yer Test of Mastery." Koko rubbed and popped her neck without a care. She knows they can handle a little pain, she's done far worse in the past after all.

"And don't worry Little Cardinal, I remember that ya both ain't got an Aura. So I'm goin' to go easy on ya for the most part during the test." Said the author as she gave them an evil grin.

Koko strolled over and pulled a rifle off the wall, shoving some rubber bullet rounds into her tan cargo pants many pockets. Her dual pistols, Scream and Shout, were fastened in their leather holsters on her thighs per usual. Throwing the rifles strap over her shoulder she motioned with her head to the door.

"But only a little." She stated off handedly as she strutted towards the door. But after hearing a ton of banging and clattering she turned around the see what the heck her idiotic students were doing.

"Ya both look right ready for this." Koko rolled her eyes and grinned as she watched the bumbling idiots scramble over to the couches to grab their own gear. Nearly tripping over each other and everything in the den during their mad dash.

"You have no idea!" Cardin smirked as he secured his armor onto his body.

 _'This is going to be awesome.'_ Soon he became lost in his own little world of violent joy.

"Well seeing as you made stir fry for lunch I have no doubt that we're in for a world of hurt. So yes I already wrote my will, I leave most everything I own to Macha... My comics go to Leo and Cardin." Sighed the blond knight.

 _'I'm surprised me and Cardin even survived the last seven years of training... We nearly died so many times because we didn't have Aura's to heal us.'_ Jaune made a big show as he sighed again.

When he finished strapping on his white plate armor he kneeled down and took his time tying his sneakers. After going through every possible thing that might go wrong, he started tying his shoes tighter for his impending doom. Losing a shoe and tripping while fighting a bear faunus that is called "Grizzly Gunner" is NOT a good idea. Knowing his luck, that would actually happen so prevention is needed.

 _'I really am like a super unlucky cartoon character... At least I'm not falling into reality bending black holes or getting anvils droped on my head.'_ Jaune blinked a couple times as he finished tying his shoes.

Then immediatly reached down towards the floor.

 **Knock! Knock!**

 _'I really hope knocking on wood actually works...'_ Gulped the unlucky swordsman.

"Well hurry up ya idiots! I ain't got all day!" Koko's words were crude but they knew she ment no harm.

Besides, the crazy gun touting author sounded absolutely ecstatic.

"I thought ya both would be more excited! After all, today I'm gonna show ya what THIS does." Lifting up her necklace from around her neck she smirked at the boys. She knows the three boys have been curious about it since they met her.

As the boys stared at the necklace, the small brown gem on the center of the bears forehead shined briefly as though it was alive.

Quicker then a shot, Jaune stood in front of Koko leaning into her personal space with his hands clasped together, stricking a absolutely perfect fanboy pose.

"Really!? Your going to show us the mystery of the silver bear necklace!?" Exclaimed the over excited blonde, and Koko would swear that she saw him being surrounded in a pink aura of joy as his sparkling blue eyes pierced her very soul.

Cardin mean while was forzen in place trying his best not to do the exact same thing as Jaune. He was just as curious, but his pride as a Winchester kept that excitement controlled.

That and it would be super embarrassing to act like Jaune is right now.

 _'Great, now he can manifest a pink aura as well as his Heart of Will_. _Next then ya know he'll be going to the nonexistent store to buy headlight fluid and elbow greese.'_ Cardin thought as he looked at the specktical with a raised brow.

"Hahahahahaha!"

Leo was cackling like a hyena as loudly as possible at Koko's expense.

"Back off ya shitty pup!" Koko put her hand between hers and Jaune's face and pushed him away.

"I gotta breath to tell ya 'bout it ya know?" Koko growled playfully as Jaune scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. Koko took out a carton of fake cigarettes and pulled a stick out. She lit it quickly with her lighter that had a bear paw motif on it, and took a drag.

Jaune and Cardin had been trying to make her give up smoking for years. She gave in after losing in a poker game against The Unlucky King (Jaune Arc) somehow. Now she smokes fake cigarettes made out of something she doesn't care knowing about. The good news is that it's working bad news is the lack of nicotine makes her grumpy.

They even look and feel real, what will Remnant come up with next?

Letting out a strangely cinnamon scented puff away from Jaune's face. Koko gave him a playful glare as she put the fake cigarette in her mouth again and crossed her arms.

"Hehe, sorry I got a little bit excited. Cardin, Leo, and me have been curious about that necklace since you showed it to use all those years ago. But you wouldn't tell us about it because it was a secret to the nomadic tribes, and Leo has amnesia-"

Jaune's eyes widened in synch with Cardins as they shared a look.

""Are you going to make us members of the Kilika tribe?!"" Yelled the boys in disbelief at their Master. They never even thought that was even possible!

Koko had a bashful expression as she looked away from her students, obviously embarrassed about something.

"Well... Since i'm the only carnivore in the tribe alive, all the others in the tribe being the herbivores back in Fresh Water. I have the right as the Cheif to bring in new members to become part of our tribe." Koko scratched her face a little as she looked at her students from the corner of her eye.

"I may not live in Fresh Water with the tribe, but i'm still their Cheif and they acknowledge me as such. As the Cheif I gotta find new carnivores for the tribe so we can all go back into the Badlands, back to our home. Ya don't gotta worry 'bout that though. I jus' want ya both to know that I think of ya as my lil' brothers." Koko mumbled that last part but Jaune and Cardin heard it and smiled from ear to ear.

Koko has been teaching them for the last seven years to control a power that is rarely found inside the walled kingdoms. A power that has been long forgotten by the people as the stronger powers of Dust and Aura became more promenant. A power that few could use but has exsited before the creation of Dust and the manifestation of the first Aura.

This power is the essence of a persons desire to live with all their heart. The power of the Heart of Will, a flame that burns with the desire to live past the dusk sky and see the rising dawn. That's why the flame is a soft orange color, just like the sky at dusk and dawn.

"Ahem! Before ya idiots ask for a damn hug, jus' know I have Scream and Shout loaded." Koko stated with a light pink in her cheeks and a hand on each pistol. Turning around, Koko walked up to the door and threw it open. She stepped out into the late afternoon air letting the sweet smell of the forest drift in. It was around 3 o'clock now so the sun was still high in the sky.

They all chuckled at Koko's flustered response to them. Jaune and Cardin grabed their weapons, and Leo's sword, then headed our the door after her.

 _'She is such a teddy bear when she's embarrassed.'_ Thought Jaune as he chuckled.

 _'For a smut author she's not very good at being honest with her feeling, can't say I'm any better though, but...'_ Cardin got a devious grin and cupped a hand around his mouth.

Then the devious mace user shouted after her.

"Hey Master!"

The grizzly gunner turned around to look at the mace wielding cardinal.

"Don't be that way! It's un-BEAR-able!"

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* * *

 _ **Outside...**_

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As they headed to a beaten path just a little ways towards the tree line, Jaune turned around and looked back at Koko's cottage.

It's a large log cabin with moss covering the exterior. The wood was the same reddish brown as the trees that surrounded them in the Kings Forest. The slanted roof of the building was covered in the colorful yellow, orange, and purple leaves from the extremely tall, yet thin-for-their-size, trees. Making the building camouflaged from above.

Planted around the building haphazardly were little white tulips with a faint blue glow.

 _'Looks like Master's Pure Glows are running low on Dust. She'll have to move soon...'_ Thought the blond knight solemly.

Jaune knew that his Master would have to move once the Pure Glows lost their power from the natural Dust in the area and go dormant. She had been living here for 10 year's and has taught them how to fight here for the last seven years. So this spot held some sentimental value to the group.

"Oi Little Wolf! Get moving or I'll go on and pass the Test of Mastery without you!" Cardin called out to his friend that was spacing out. Cardin jogged up next to his fellow knight and followed his gaze, finding the source of the hold up. Putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder Cardin forced the sad sap to move his gaze.

Releasing his pals shoulder Cardin said with a light chuckle, "Come on you sap, it's not like this place will be gone forever."

Cardin rolled his eyes as he punched his pals shoulder with a grin.

"Dust veins regenerate after five years or so ya know. It's not like she won't move back into the old cabin." Smiling Jaune rubbed his slightly sore shoulder.

"I know, I just don't like goodbyes." Jaune avoided eye contact and went to catch up with Koko and Leo who are waiting a little ways down the path.

"Come on partner!" Jaune called back with a forced smile and cheery tone, Cardin frowned at Jaune's obvious lie.

'I know you do ya drama queen, so stop trying to hide your pain from us. We can't help if you shut us out you awkward idiot.'

Cardin jogged up to Koko and Jaune while Leo floated around watching out for Grimm.

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* * *

 _ **On the path...**_

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"Okay, so first off lets review the basics of Heart of Will." Koko said in a serious tone as they walked to the usual spot where they train.

"First things first, what is it?" Koko looked dead ahead along with the others, being vigilant for unwanted "guests" in the form of souless beasts.

"Heart of Will is the manifestation of our second heart. It isn't a physical heart, but a spiritual one that pumps a small amount of fire through our blood continuously. As long as we don't give up and have a desire to keep going in life the flame of our Will stays lit." Cardin answered then rolled his eyes, she's drilled it into their heads so much that when she asks that question it became second nature.

"Good job Little Cardinal, now what is a flame?" She looked out the corner of her eye at Jaune who was on her left side.

"The flame is the form our Will takes, and it's endless as long as our Will stays strong. The flame is a soft orange like the dusk and dawn sky, because just like the dusk marks the ending and the dawn marks the beginning-"

"-Every ending is really just a new beginning." Said all three boys as they followed Koko.

The bear faunus smiled as they repeated what she's told them almost word for word.

"What's special about the flames?" Koko asked.

"The flames are warm to the touch, but can't harm or burn anything they touch. They only have an effect on the users of the flames body. The reason they are called flames is because they are warm and look like fire." Leo responded to her with his ever cheery voice.

"Now, what are my two rules about Heart of Will?" She continued on with her Q&A.

"Keep it a secret from outsiders because they will probably freak out and never use it against a herbivore."

Jaune said with a steely tone, _'As a true Arc, I'm a man of my word and I'll never break that rule. Not even to prove to HIM that i'm strong.'_

"BUT!" Koko dramatically interjected.

"You can tell people you trust, like how we told the Little Sparrow when she came to my den for the first time last year." Koko smiled as they all nodded in understanding.

Koko got a mischevious grin, "Now what is a "carnivore" and "herbivore"? I know this doesn't have much to do with Heart of Will, but if yer gonna join the tribe yer gonna 'ave to remember it."

Smirking the cardinal decided to answer.

"Carnivores, in all the nomad tribes of Remnant, are those with the Heart of Will. Herbivores are those without the Heart of Will," Cardin turned to look at his Master and meet her gaze.

"Outside of your own tribe, carnivores are those that can be considered "dangerous" or "strong" and herbivores are "weaklings." Cardin crossed his arms and looked smug while Koko and Leo laughed at his exagerrated display. The blonde goofball sent a cheeky grin at his partner in crime.

"And calling people little animal's in the tribes is a way to give a nickname to your kin or sworn brothers. Outside they are a way to call those who don't fall into either the herbivore or carnivore category. Which is why you call us, Little Cardinal and Little Wolf. Because we are not a carnivore or a herbivore, and we remind you of a cardinal and a wolf." Jaune got a perplexed face then.

"Why doesn't Leo have a "little animal" nickname?" Jaune's blue eyes scanned his Master's brown one as though the answer lied within.

"Well, that's cause the cub was a member of a tribe. He's a diffren' kinda person then the two of ya as well, even though he's dead he can still use his Heart of Will because he was jus' that powerful in life." Koko said with a chuckle.

"In life Leo was prolly a well known and highly respected carnivore in his tribe." Leo puffed out his chest at the praise.

"Though he may not remember his "Calls", or anything really, he was still a carnivore which means the only ones that can call him a little animal are his own kin and sworn brothers." Koko gave Leo an apologetic smile and Leo hung his head for a second in defeat.

"Yeeeeeah..." Leo dragged out, "I really wish I'd have remembered my Calls, now I gotta ask the spirits for them again." Leo grumbled as he crossed his arms and pouted.

""Wait whats a "Call"?""

Inquired the knight duo at the same time.

 _'Great, now that we are on the same mental wavelength we should start training on how to use telepathy.'_ The burnt orange barbarian rolled his eyes and then he started to squint.

'She better tell us what that is though, I can't take any more myst-'

Just like that Koko dashed Cardin's hopes.

"We're getting off track 'ere." Koko waved away their question.

"A "Call" is somethin' that I'll gladly explain," she took a drag on her cigarette, "AFTER ya both finish yer test."

Jaune and Cardin deflated at that.

 _'Damn nomads and their endless secret's...'_ Grumbled Cardin in his head as he looked at a squirrel with all his frustration. When the little squirrel looked at Cardin's indigo eyes it's own widened and the poor thing bolted behind the nearest tree.

Cardin, now satisfied with striking fear in an innocent creature, smirked evilly as he waited for Koko's next question.

"Now what're the requirment's to 'ave a Heart of Will?" The author took the fake cigarette out of her mouth and inspected the soft orange glow, watching the trail of smoke rise.

"You have to be born with the ability through your bloodline or receive someone elses by being Touched by the Flames." Leo said with his ever cheery tone.

"What is it, and what is the draw back of being Touched by the Flame?" Koko smirked as Cardin did the same.

Koko tapped the loose ash from her cinnamon-scented fake cancer stick and put it back in her mouth as she listened.

"Touched by the Flame is when you flow your flame into someone and give them a limited power of the Heart of Will. As long as they believe in the owner of the flames, the flames given to them will burn."

"Though it is limited so they can't use it for anything but cauterizing wounds, warming themselves, and the boost in observation. All the basic things that don't require training or actually manipulating that second heart."

Cadin furrowed his brows in thought.

"And the flames only last so long in the person who receives them, maybe an hour or two. Because they themselves don't have the second heart putting flames in their blood, only YOUR flames. And when they're all used up, their gone."

He finished explaining, feeling rather confident with his answer. Though Cardin couldn't help but think...

 _'Why are we going through a review on things that she has almost LITERALLY beaten into our heads?'_ Cardin was pulled out of his internal musings when Koko spoke again with a small smile.

"Okay so what is the immediate effect of having the Heart of Will unlocked in a person?" Koko went back to her questioning tone.

"They get really good at observing their surroundings and focusing their senses. Since we're more sensitive and aware of our surrounding we can see and hear Leo." Jaune looked at the apparition who gave him a thumbs up and cheesy grin.

"It also makes it easier for us to figure out how a person is feeling as long as they make eye contact with us. We can even increase the amount of flames in our blood stream to warm ourselves up in extremely cold weather. When we increase the amount of flames it also makes us slightly fire proof."

Jaune stated proudly, but then his face fell when he remembered the drawback.

"Buuuut when we increase the flames in our blood we can't do any of the techniques, not even Crest Sight."

Jaune turned his sad gaze at the same squirrel that Cardin glared daggers at, the poor thing was hiding behind trees watching them from a safe distance as it followed the group down the path.

 _'Awww he didn't mean to scare you little guy. His face is just stuck that way!'_ Jaune gave the squirrel an apologetic smile.

Looking to his pal, Jaune got a nice veiw of Cardin's evil smirk prompting him to close his eyes and massage his temple.

'Nevermind little fella... I'd forgotten how evil my best friend is to cute little animals.'

"Great Little Wolf! The reason for that is because this ability is a survival sort, unlike Aura it isn't meant to protect you in a fight. It's meant to preserve yer life in harsh environments like icy climbs or wastelands that people usually avoid livin' in." Their Master lectured them in a sagely tone.

"That's why us nomads can survive so well outside the walls." The boy's all nodded their heads in understanding.

"Now what was the first thing I taught ya boys that taps into the natural focus we got even further?"

They have been walking for a good 20 minutes now and should be nearing their destination. Koko took out her pistols Scream and Shout and fiddled with them while Leo lazily floated around the group.

"Crest Sight." Grunted out Cardin as his heavy steps alerted the whole forest of their presence.

"What does Crest Sight do Little Cardinal?" Asked the grizzly gunner as she holstered her guns once more.

"It's a technique that moves extreme anger or fear to the back of our heads so we can judge our situation accordingly. It also makes our already sensitive observations even stronger. We become hyper sensitive to the point where we can see things like elemental spirits that not even a ghost buster would be able to detect." Leo nearly choked at that.

The apparition's head spun to the little cardinal, "The hell is a ghost buster!?"

"Someone that kills ghost's now shut up, I'm not done yet." The poor ghost looked terrified towards Jaune.

Jaune mouthed out to his distressed friend, _movie reference_ , and he automatically called down.

 _'You nearly gave Leo a heart attack Cardin, but I guess he'd be fine since he's already dead.'_ Jaune sighed.

"We have a near 360 of our surroundings when we close our eyes and focus. When our eyes are open it increases the distance we can see by a little bit. Not to mention the added bonus of reading facial expressions with an ease psychologists would fear." The burnt orange knight got a mischievous grin as made eye contact with Koko.

"It also puts a mark, or "Crest", on our body when activated. That crest is kinda like the symbol of our heart. Mines a golden wing on my right eye, you have your bear paw on your good eye(left one), Leo has his crescent moon and star in the middle of his upper back, and Jaune has his two crescent moons on both his cheeks. This is the reason why it's called Crest Sight, becuase it deals with your sight and puts a crest on your body."

Koko nodded her head as Cardin finished his explanation. But then the cardinal's mischievous grin got bigger.

"But you know..."

 _'Oh Dust what's he going to say?!"_ Juane mentally panicked.

"It's more like Jaune has, CRESCENT SIGHT."

 **SLAP!**

"Do ya 'ave to make a shitty pun every chance ya get?"

Koko groaned as she dragged her hand down her face, being mindful of the cigarette that's still in her mouth. Koko readjusted her eyepatch as she continued to grimace about Cardin's horrible sense of humor.

"That one wasn't very good Cardin..." Jaune said shaking his head.

 _'I should have known he'd make a bad pun. "Crescent sight"? Really?'_ Jaune mused as he pointed his deadpanned at the hot-head.

"It was fantastic, you guys just don't know a good joke when you hear it." Pouted the mace wielder as he glared at a group of woodland creatures, causing them to scatter instantly.

'That's right! Run from me you stupidly cute animals!'

Thought Cardin as he started to smirk again. Making Jaune sigh heavily at his friends strange fascination with scaring innocent creatures.

"I know PUN-tiful of good jokes, and that wasn't even close birdy boy." Taking a slow drag of her cigarette the bear shot the cardinal a smirk.

"Ouch, anyone got some cold water? I need it for my burn." The hopeless comedian said while rolling his eyes, making Jaune and Leo chuckle.

"Way to take a punch champ." Koko laughed with them as she continued the conversation.

"But that's not all Crest Sight can do, and when ya both pass yer test, I'll teach ya." Leo and her chuckled when Jaune and Cardin's faces lit up.

"Wait..." Jaune started as the hampster in his head kicked into high gear to process what Koko just said.

" **YOU MEAN OUR TRAINING ISN'T EVEN OVER YET**?!" The blonde knight exclaimed while whiping his head to face Koko.

The unfortunate bear faunus had to cover her ears from the volume of his voice. She immediatly sent the blonde a disapproving glare and he slapped his hands over his mouth.

With a simple nod from Koko as she took the fake cigarette out of her mouth tapping off some more ash, Jaune hung his head in defeat with a groan.

'I really am going to die to this training...'

"Yup!" Koko said with a cheeky grin as she poped the p. Putting the cinnamon scented stick back into her mouth while smiling away.

"Okay now what are the three basic techniques for the use of flames?" Koko asked as they entered a large circular clearing that had several small patches of dark green grass, boulders, and large jutting rocks sparsed out over it.

The grizzly gunner takes her two students here often to practice with their Heart of Will and how to fight. The clearing was surrounded by the dense forest of colorful trees they've become accustomed to. Planted right infront of the trees were Pure Glows to keep grimm from interrupting their training. The Pure Glows made a ring all around the boarder of the clearing and at night made what looked like a glowing blue ring.

"Grip, Boost, and Instant Movement." Cardin said as he started to smirk, finally seeing where this conversation was going.

'She's gonna show us what that necklace does as soon as she finishes questioning us. And it just HAS to be part of Heart of Will so we can do whatever it is as well.'

"Right, Grip lets ya attach yerself to solid surfaces like trees and stones and Boost increases yer strength a little, but the flames can only be focused on yer hands and feet." Koko looked out the corner of her left eye and sent her best evil grin at Jaune.

"Unless yer crazy and figure out how to focus it in yer head." Koko chuckled while tapping the crown of her head.

"Th-that was one time! A-and it was also a desperate situation with an Alpha Beowolf!" Jaune got red faced and desperately tried to defend himself.

"What about the Nevermore?" The authors evil grin grew as Jaune shot her a glare at the mentioning of the "forbidden" Grimm. Making the blonde knight pout and grumble under his breath, Cardin could barely make it out but he did make out something about tight wires and... Anvils?

 _'What in the name of Dust are you going to do on a tight wire with an anvil?'_ Cardin crossed his arms and squinted as he tried to figure out how his best friend would even LIFT an anvil.

"Now now Koko! You know how the Little Wolf feels about Nevermores." Sang Leo as he patted the blondes mop of hair.

Jaune was in full pout mode, lips pursed, shoulders hiked, back hunched up, and arms crossed. While the ghostly lion patted his head trying to calm him down. Cardin chuckled as the pouting blondes eye started to twitch.

"Anyways, how exactly do Grip and Boost work boys?"

"Grip is when you focus your flames outwards through your hands or feet and "pull" at the flames to attach yourself to that surface. After you figure it out, just like all the crazy techniques, it becomes second nature and is almost like breathing." Answered Jaune still in pouting mode.

Koko motioned for him to continue with her hand.

"Erm, and it ummm."

Jaune looked at Leo for an answer. Leo flew in front of him and did a back stroke in mid air, which made the blonde perk up a little from his pout.

"Oh yeah, you can't use it on stuff like water and sand because it's not solid and moves almost constantly!"

Koko punched the slightly pouting swordsman in the shoulder while shaking her head in amusment.

"Good job, now quit pouting unless ya want me to make you Scream..."

Koko pulled out her pistol named Scream from its holster giving it a twirl as she did.

"And Shout."

She drew her other pistol with the same motions giving Jaune an evil grin, prompting him to give her a nervous smile and thumbs up.

"A Boost is when you focus flames in your hands and feet to increase the strength of your arms and legs. The flame energy you charge up in your arms and legs is automatically released when they make contact with something or flex. This doesn't give the person using it insane power though, like being able to throw cars or boulders. But it can make the user's bare punch or kick feel like your getting hit with a steel gauntlet or boot. You can even increase the height you can jump by a few more feet."

Leo said while grinning at the bear and wannbe hunter's little exchange.

"A Boost increases only your own bodies strength, so it can't be focused into a weapon but it can make the swing stronger. Though that can result in breaking the weapon or making you lose your grip on it. Well, that's if your not USING Grip to, erm, grip your weapon. Oh! and it can lessen blunt force damage because of the contraction and hardening of muscles in your arms and legs when you do a boost, making it an almost iron defence, but only in your arms and legs."

The ghost scratched at the back of his brown shaggy hair, glancing at Koko as if asking, "Was that right?"

"Thank's Leo, now what is Instant Movement? And what is the abriviation I gave it?" Koko stood in the center and turned around to face them.

Crossing her arms she leaned on her good leg, aka her left one.

Jaune, Leo, and Cardin stopped infront of koko and then shared a look. They could FEEL the excitement rolling off their Master. Whatever she's about to do, it's going to be BIG and definitely FLASHY. They had an inkling that whatever her necklace does, it's dangerous because she just took it off and started inspecting it.

Her chacolate brown eye glinting with mischeif as she did while her mouth curled into a predator like grin.

"Well... Instant Movement is when you use the skills Grip and Boost at the same time to move almost instantly from one spot to another in a straight line." Jaune began and looked towards the shirt and shoeless caveman ghost as he reached for his blade slowly.

"You have to focus a Boost and Grip into your feet and lean in the direction you want to go. When your ready, you just kick off and jump through the air. You have to use Grip to stop yourself during Instant Movement otherwise you'll keep gaining velocity and injure yourself. So it's best to stop at no more then 30ft." Said the brown haired ghost as he got ready to bolt out of the way so he can try and help out his friends by calling her locations. For a women with a limp, Koko can be damn fast.

Jaune and Cardin started to prepare to instant movement backwards from Koko's possible attack.

With a full blown grin from the prospect of some action, the burnt orange haird barbarian said his piece.

"And you abbreviated Instant Movement to just IMT. Because the name was way to long."

Satisfied with their answer's (and reaction's) Koko turned away form the teens and started tossing her necklace up and down in her hand.

Confusing the tensed up boys as they looked at the back of her brown tank top, the knight duo lowered their weapons slightly and exchanged looks.

"Look alive Asru!" Koko grinned as she held out her bear shaped pendant with her index finger and thumb, hand rapped in flame's surrounded the silver necklace making the brown gem glow. A bright bolt of orange fire expelled from the silver. Engulfing the space in front of all of them in a firy tornado. A fire that, just like they said about the flames earlier, didn't even scorch the ground.

 **THUD!**

Manifesting from the flames and landing on the ground in front of the group was a bear on its hind legs. It has silver plate like armor covering it's body similar to where the bone armor of an aged Ursa Major had it's own, but without the spikes. On all of the silver plates were brown scrawling's that glowed faintly, similar to the blood red scrawling you'd see on the mask of a grimm.

The bear's fur was shaggy and a dark brown, it looked like a grizzly bear in silver armor almost. Brown eyes, that are very similar to Koko's eye, looked at them through slits in it's silver Grimm like mask, eyes full of confidence with complete calm.

"Say hello..."

Koko turned around to look at the boys and spread her arms wide with the bear right behind her.

"To my little friend, Asru."

Koko crossed her arms as Asru growled loudly and went on all fours. Asru stalked up next to Koko and she started to pat Asru's back.

"Well what'cha guys think?"

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Exclaimed the young men with glee as they all proceeded to fanboy over Koko's silver amored bear.

"That is so cool!" Jaune yelled as he looked at the grizzly bear.

"Asru looks like an armored bear of pure awesome." Stated Cardin with childish glee. _'Definitely a nice fit for the Queen of Badassery.'_

At this point Cardin didn't care about apperances and will proceed to fanboy like Jaune and Leo. The three boys had started shifting back and forth on their feet in the typical fanboy pose, they were that excited.

Koko just smiled at the boys and gave a small laugh. She couldn't help but think how rare it is for the Little Cardinal to smile and act like a kid without a care in the world, it's a regular occurance for Jaune and Leo though.

"Well now that we got introduction's out of the way." Koko gestured to the rocky clearing around them.

"I think it's 'bout time I start yer Test of Mastery." Koko gave them a big smile and the knight duo fist bumbed with matching grins.

She scratched her short brown hair as she watched Leo pet Asru's head, to the grizzly bears joy.

"Freaking ghost is petting a damn grizzly bear, never thought I'd see that in my life time"

Koko chuckled as she looked back at the two boys giving her expectant looks like they want a turn to pet the grizzly bear.

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* * *

 _ **Five minutes later...**_

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"Okay! Are ya both ready?" Asked the brown haired gunner from the other end of the field with her bear Asru.

"Yeah! Just tell us what we gotta do already!" Yelled the burnt orange hot-head as Jaune and him finished double checking their gear to make sure everything was in place.

"Alright then, Leo I want ya to shut up while the idiots fight me." Stated the bear faunus as she pointed at the ghost with his own sheathed sword in her hand.

Leo grabbed the knights shoulders and shook them strongly as he looked dead ahead. He spoke in a calm whisper to the knight duo, "Peace and no sorrow." Then went straight back to goofy ghost mode and pushed a path between the two straight to Koko.

"Aye aye!" Leo gave a mock two finger salute with a cheery smile. Koko set the sheathed blade against the tree Leo would be observing from.

 _'Does Casper even KNOW how to frown? I swear to Dust, for a dead guy he never seems to act like he's... Dead.'_ Cardin rolled his eyes while smirking slightly.

"So here's how this is goin' to work. Ya both are goin' to 'ave to take down my Metal Head," Koko started to pet the armored grizzly's back, "Asru."

The hunter wannabe's shared a look and then stared back at their Master. Both of them gave her a hesitant nod to continue.

The eyepatch wearing gunner gave the knight duo a mischevious smile and went on, "Asru is, as ya both can prolly tell from looking, similar to an Ursa Major. Well, thats jus' the thing, Asru WAS in fact an Ursa Major at one point."

She grinned as they gaped at the sliver plated bear. "I'll tell ya how and why, if ya both can defeat her before sunset."

"Which is in..." Koko trailed off as she looked at the watch on her wrist that read 3:50 pm.

"About three hours from now."

 _'Seems easy enough, Cardin and me have fought a Ursa Major once before and won. And all I had back then was a sheild!'_ Jaune looked at his Master with confidence, eyes steeled for combat.

 _'Yeah! This will be easy! If we stick to Master's 10 rules of living and watch each others six, the both of us will pass this Test of Mastery!'_ Jaune looked at his partner in arms with a smile.

"You hear that Jauney Boy! It's time to BEAR arms!" Cardin pounded his chest with his left hand and hoisted Mea Culpa onto his shoulder with his right.

 _'We can handle this, as long as the Loco Koko doesn't start shooting at us we can win this with only a little difficulty!'_ Thought the burnt orange hot-head as he grined like a barbarian on the night before a great battle.

"Well I know ya both 'ave beaten an Ursa Major by yerselves before... But Asru is diffren'."

Koko smiled mischievously.

"Asru ya see, has a far tougher hide then an Ursa Major and the silver plates are far more dense then Grimm bone armor as well. But that's not the thing you two should be worried 'bout." The grizzly gunner activated her Crest Sight and the soft orange flame etched her brown bear paw over her left eye, making her evil grin grow more menacing.

"Ya see boys, me and Asru are connected. What I see, she does, and what she see's, I do," the knight duo quirked a brow, "and I never said that I wouldn't be participating."

Koko took off the rifle from her back and ran up one of the tall trees that easily reached three stories high. Koko found her self a good spot and continued her explanation. Leo was leaning his bare ghostly back against the trunk of the tree Koko was perched in.

The ghost was looking at the oversized grizzly that was going to maul his best friends, giving it a small smile and wave.

Jaune gulped, _'We're screwed...'_

"I'll be shooting at ya little animals, and since we share our senses yer both pretty much screwed if ya don't come up with a plan." Koko grined from her perch as she attached a scope to the rifle. "Ya got 5 minutes before I start the fight boys, use it wisely."

 _'Did I really just jinx us? That women will be the end of us one of these days...'_ Thought the hot-head dryly as he put his face into what Jaune calls, Winchester Mode. In other words, Cardin steeled his expression into his natural scowl and narrowed his eyes further to look even more menacing then normal.

Which is really saying something considering his natural expression makes animals run away.

 _'And now the atmosphere is so tense that a blunt and rusty butter knife can cut through it.'_ Was the blondes nervous thought.

After spending time with Cardin's family, Jaune has come to find out that Cardin's father, Carson, and elder brother, Genesis, all have that same natural scowl.

Winchester Mode also seems to be hereditary and only used when they are feeling:

A. angry

Or

B. overwhelmed

Which isn't a very good thing if you know what happens when a Winchester is angry or feels weaker then someone else.

 _'Time to do what I do best.'_ Thought the blonde knight.

"Hey Little Cardinal..." Jaune turned to look at his partner with a well practiced look of, I'm-totaly-done-with-this.

"Yeah Little Wolf..." Came the frustrated answer from his best friend.

"Earlier today when that Beowolf was pounding me into the ground I had a thought." Jaune said as he reached down to Crocea Mors.

Drawing his blade and expanding his sheath sheild, the blonde slowly grew a smile.

"And that would be?" Cardin looked at his friend curiously as he moved into his combat stance. Body sideways, feet apart, left arm extended out with palm open towards Asru, mace hoisted up onto his shoulder by his right hand.

'Why the hell is he bringing that up right now? Wait why is he smiling?'

Jaune chuckled a little as he looked at his friend in the eyes.

Giving his buddy a goofy smile and shrug. "That thought was, _"I can't wait to find out what dirt and soul crushing defeat's flavor will be."_ ,looks like I jinxed us."

Jaune gave the burnt orange knight a smirk of his own.

Cardin scoffed and replied, "You owe me dinner and some red dust crystals for Mea Culpa."

Raising Mea Culpa and pointing at the dust crystal in the bladed cage that formed the head of the mace. Cardin smirked at his bestfriends sense humor. Jaune never fails at helping people relax a little in stressful situations...

 _'Thanks buddy.'_ Cardin gave the blonde goofball a small smile.

Turning his gaze forwards again, he once again went into Winchester Mode, but a little less intense.

' _Now all I gotta do is come up with a way to counter the gun touting witches magic connection to her armored grizzly bear familiar... Wait... Magic, familiars, camping against us up in a three story tall tree...'_

Cardin squinted a bit and pursed his lips as he continued to look dead ahead.

'That's waaaay to simple, but it is crazy and crazy has yet to fail Jaune and me in life so far. Hell that's all I really know how to deal with in this crazy world.'

"Got a plan Little Cardinal? Cause it's your turn, and we might need an insane plan to win against that amored bear of awesome and the Queen of Badassery." Asked the blonde knight with a shakey smile as he took his best attempt at a sword and sheild stance. Which wasn't to bad because of all the practicing he does with his twin sister.

 _'Please don't make it any stupider then my own plan to just stay still and act like a plant while praying to all things Dust that the six beowolves don't see us. That plan failed horribly...'_ Jaune mentally begged Cardin and Dust with every fiber of his being.

"Yup, and I think I got you beat for the "Stupidest Plan of the Week" award." Cardin gave him his signature smirk of chaos.

Jaune sighed and shook his head in amusment.

 _'For all his bad puns, anger issues, violent solutions, and hatred for weakness. I will always and forever call this crazy cardinal, my bestfriend. Though I do wish that at least HALF of those things weren't actually... A thing.'_ Jaune smiled wearily at Cardin who had his, evil-face-of-ploting, on full blast scaring everything in the area that so much as breathed. The mischvious glint in his eyes can only be compared to a king of mischeif.

"So, you just gonna sit there Cardin or are you gonna tell me your award winning, "Stupidest Plan of the Week?" asked the blonde knight with a nervous laugh and scared smile.

"Master is..." Cardin closed his eyes for his dramatic pause and then opened his eyes with the single most idiotic conclusion ever... Of all time.

"A MAGE!"

Cardin was to estactic at his discovery that he didn't even register the look of dread that spread across his blonde buddies face.

'My grave stone will probably read: "Here lies Jaune Arc. An idiot who could only make friends with another idiot." - Love Dad'

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* * *

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 **A/N: The time has come!**

 **Now onto the tease for the next chapter:**

 **Cardin did NOT go crazy. In fact Cardin is, as Doctor Oobleck would say, "Not wrong" on the subject of Koko being a "mage" of some sort.**

 **Next chapter Cardin reveals his crazy plan and Jaune actually likes it. Asru trys to maul Cardin mostly. Jaune is shot at and used as a human weapon. Koko shoots at them both ruthlessly while laughing. And we get more family background on the loveable idiots.**

 **All the while Leo is wishing he was alive so he'd be able to enjoy this show with some popcorn.**

 **Reviews are always welcome. I want to know what I did good on and what I need to work on so tell me please! With sugar and sprinkles, and erm, what ever else tastes good on top?**

 **Till next time! Laters!**


	3. Lion's and Tiger's and Bear's

Arc: Introduction

Chapter 3: Lion's and Tiger's and Bear's

 **A/N: Seeing as some people have added this story to their favorites and there are more then 250 views, I guess it's safe to say I did something right with it.**

 **But dang this chapter is long...**

 **This chapter alone took a while to write. I scrapped three whole outcomes and edited this one I don't even know how many times till I got it how I liked. Don't even get me started on the spell checking, more then sure I missed a some with how long this is.**

 **The Test of Mastery will be finished in this chapter. It will have some world building, character developement, and what I hope is a entertaining fight with a couple banters.**

 **Hope you all like it!**

 **WARNING: There will be cursing, hopefully an awesome fight, and Cardin's terrible sense of humor.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it belongs to its respective owners. I also do not own any of the things I reference to either.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

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* * *

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 _"My heart was forged through pain, loneliness, and suffering."_ \- Leo Shine

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A cool breeze swept through the Kings Forest. Bringing a chill to the two wanna-be hunter's, a trigger happy faunus, and a silver plated grizzly bear. The once audible sounds of animals and insects became nothing but a distant whisper. The animals and insects probably left sensing the tension of the battle that was about to take place.

The two wanna-be hunter's are non-other then Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester, and right this very moment they are engaged in a-

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* * *

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"Leo do ya honestly 'ave to narrate everythin' ya see?" The brown haired woman looked down from her perch high in the tree. Leo was leaning against the trunk of that very same tree, and yes, he was using a stick as a microphone.

Looking a little miffed the ghostly lion looked up at the bear faunus with narrowed eyes.

"Well what else can I do?" Leo threw his arms out wide in response to Koko.

"I'm only allowed to watch so at least let me narrate or I'll get really bored!" Leo pouted and crossed his arms.

"Fine whatever..." Koko sighed, "Just don't say anythin' to stupid or I'll shoot ya, got it?" To emphasize her point, she directed her rifle at the apparition.

"You can threaten bodily harm all you like, but your guns and bullets will never hurt me in the after life~!" The lion faunus sang with a smug grin at the trigger happy author, making her give an indignant huff in return.

"Where was I?" Leo racked his brain in thought while Koko took out a rag to absentmindedly clean her rifle.

"Oh yeah! Ahem!" Leo cleared his throat and tested his stick like it's a microphone before bringing it close to his mouth to "speak into" it.

"The two wanna-be hunter's are non-other then Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester! As they lie in wait for the great battle that will soon start, they have engaged in a heated... Staring contest?" Leo inquired, he tucked the stick under his arm and made binoculars with his hands in an attempt to see the duo from his position across the field better.

 **SMACK!**

"You okay Koko?" Leo called out as he continued to watch Jaune and Cardin. He made an attempt to "zoom-in" with his "binoculars" and grew a frown because it wasn't working.

"Ya little bastards are gonna be the end of me..." She said under her breath as she looked out at the idiots across the field and wondering if she'll someday have a permanent hand print on her forehead.

At this rate Koko would bet every last piece of lien in her wallet it will happen.

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the Cardin and Jaune...**_

.

Jaune was staring at his comrade in arms, his greatest ally, his partner in crime, his best friend in the whole world! They looked each other in the eyes and neither blinked, Cardin's signature smirk was on full display and Jaune-

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Was freaking out at the pure stupidity of what his best friend has just told him. A little refresher on Cardin's stupid statement...

.

(Line Break)  
 _ **A little bit ago...**_

.

 _"So, you just gonna sit there Cardin or are you gonna tell me your award winning, "Stupidest Plan of the Week?" asked the blonde knight with a nervous laugh and scared smile._

 _"Master is..." Cardin closed his eyes for his dramatic pause and then opened his eyes with the single most idiotic conclusion ever... Of all time._

 _"A MAGE!"_

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the present...**_

.

Keeping his ears focused on their Master in case she tries another one of her super painful surprise attacks. Cardin decided to enlighten the blonde knight with a mischievous grin.

"Jaune, I need you to hear me out. This is only a hypothesis but it makes total sense if you think about ANY of the things our Master has done that's seriously weird. It literally answer's every question we have ever had about her!"

Cardin's eye's became filled with glee as he continued, "Think about it Jaune, she just summoned a giant silver armored bear from a necklace and the two of them are also apparently connected in more then likely a spiritual way. Doesn't that sound like a familiar to a mage in all those video games and books we have?"

Still keeping his eyes trained on his best friend, he watched as Jaune calmed down and thought about it.

"Oh my Dust you're right..." Jaune's eyes widened as he realized what Cardin was getting at.

 _'There you go Jauney boy, welcome back to the insane reality we live in.'_ The burnt orange hot-head rolled his eyes with a happy, but evil looking, smirk.

"Okay... It's official, we can never EVER tell anyone about this crazy stuff they'd throw us into a loony bin..." Jaune covered his eyes as he spoke tiredly. Cardin's mood plummeted as he realized the shear insanity of their lives.

The burnt-orange knight let out a sigh as his own features turned exasperated as well. "You got that right, if we ever told someone about any of the things we've done..." Cardin trailed off as he thought even more about how "normal people" wouldn't believe a damn thing they have done.

"They'd think it was an overly exaggerated story or a dream." The mace touting knight groaned sadly.

 _'Just like Peter and his not-so-exaggerated stories...'_ The duo thought as they looked at the tops of the tall tree's with a thousand yard stare.

The two of them are part of at least four of his more exciting tales, and don't get them started on how many times they almost die whenever they are with him. But even though they were dangerous adventures, the duo loved to spend time with the mustached Huntsmen.

 _'I wonder how Peter is doing? Is he out on an adventure with the Wise Owl?'_ Thought the blonde knight with a tired smile.

 _'I wonder if Peter is out on one of his crazy adventures, maybe he's hunting a werewolf or something? Yeah, that sound's like something he'd do.'_ Thought the barbarian knight.

"But it makes so much sense now." Jaune started as he left his distant thoughts. Cardin listened to his friend as he left his own thoughts.

"Like how she sits on the roots of the Dusk Tree every evening. Wispy spirit thingies gather around her when she does that..." Jaune said while sheathing his sword and striking a thinking pose as Cardin watched him.

 _'There's my goofy blonde detective, if you find anymore clues I'll promote you to Sherlock.'_ Cardin sniggered at his mental remark, but opted not to upset the currently hard at thinking Jaune by sharing it.

"What else can you think of?" The burnt orange knight asked instead.

 _'What else is there-'_

Jaune's eyes widened as he realized something they should seriously be worried about if this hypothesis is right.

"Cardin, did Koko bring her little leather bound book..." He cast his eyes on his best friend, resting his hand on Crocea Mors' hilt with a nervous shake. The blonde knights gaze was filled with worry.

Cardin was taken back by that question, and the look in Jaune's eyes. Jaune had that look that screams shit's about to get real, and that look alone sent Cardin on destroy-anything-that-moves mode.

"You mean the little pocket sized book with a ton of weird words in it?" Cardin's grip tightened on Mea Culpa just a little.

"Yeah, that one." The blonde knight's tone was a little shaky now.

"She always has that book with her wherever she goes so probably."

"Cardin, I think that's a pocket sized magic book."

"..."

The knight duo let out a long sigh and turned their tired gazes to stare up at the bear faunus waiting in the trees. This women has single handedly made sure that they question everything and accept every crazy thing that happens as real till they can prove it false. That mindset has led to tons of crazy adventures and a vampire hunt with their friend Peter.

That was the craziest thing they have ever done with Peter...

Steeling their gazes they watched Koko and Asru. Both of them knew they have about three minutes till she starts shooting and they get mauled by her silver armored bear. Asru's silver clawed paws shined in the sunlight filtering through the tree's, glinting menacingly at the duo.

Jaune audibly gulped, _'This won't end well if Cardin doesn't have a good plan.'_

"So what's your plan?" Jaune asked with a nervous laugh.

"Cause I really think we should be focusing on that instead of the hypothesis that Master is a mage. You know, since we're about to get mauled by not only one scary bear, but TWO of them." Jaune's face twisted as he looked at Asru, trying to find any obvious weaknesses.

And or find the least painful way to die at it's paws...

"Well this plan will only work if Master's bear and her share ALL the same sense's." Cardin said with his face back into it's natural scowl.

 _'Sounds full proof, nice work Little Cardinal...'_ The blonde knight thought dryly.

"What we're going to do is split up, you go left and I'll go straight to the armored bear of death. I'll distract them both and you go and get into Master's blind spot, but keep a good distance."

 _'I'm liking this plan so far.'_ Jaune thought at first but then worried about Cardin's safety.

Till he saw Cardin's face, then he just deadpanned.

Cardin had narrowed his eyes further, as if he was daring Asru to attack him with his eyes and mad man smirk.

 _'Please don't poke the bear with eye contact.'_ Jaune continued with his depressing thoughts as he listened.

"I want you to hit Master hard with some of these Blast Roots and try to get her to move from her position to a lower one." Cardin reached into one of his ash grey satchels that are crisscrossed around his waist and pulled out a bundle of small dried reddish orange roots that looked to be petrified.

"That way I can try and see how much they are connected, to do so I need to be able to see her and it'd be easier if she was lower." The mace wielders scowled hardened further as he handed them to Jaune who nearly had to pry his fingers from the hilt and scabbard of his weapon to take the roots.

"Then we'll go with the Arc Bullet maneuver, ONLY if they share all the same senses. If we do it just right, then I'm more then sure we can take out Yogi over there." Cardin explained as he pointed at the war-bear with a smug smirk.

 _'I really hope Asru didn't hear that...'_ Jaune gulped.

"You think the Arc Bullet will even work on it? We haven't done that with something so..." Jaune inspected Asru from the safety of 30 feet.

"BIG, before." Jaune finished nervously.

The mace wielder grimaced.

"The biggest thing we've killed with that maneuver was a Nightwalker, which was the Grimm that made you come up with it in the first place. Though that thing was about half that firkin bears weight."

Cardin sighed as he continued, "But it's not like we have any other option besides the "forbidden maneuver" and that's a weapon best saved for a later date, like when you have an Aura."

The cardinal grimaced at just mentioning that horribly painful and forbidden-for-a-reason-maneuver. They've perfected it over the years, but when they use it in an actual fight it leaves Jaune almost completely immobile.

 _'Though we'd have died if Jaune was willing to do that maneuver. The guy may have self esteem issue's, but he sure as hell knows how to pull through when it counts.'_ Cardin thought with respect for the blonde doofus he calls friend.

"Those are the only attack formation's we got that Master hasn't seen before and we need the element of surprise to win this." Cardin looked at his best friend who only nodded his head in understanding.

Turning back to look at Asru, Jaune remembered the Little Cardinal and his first C rank Grimm kill when they were only 15. It was a Nightwalker, a tiger type Grimm that is really vicious and determined when it finds a target. They were able to beat it with the Arc Bullet just barely.

Arc Bullet is a move Jaune had come up with himself, and they've been perfecting it ever since. Arc Bullet is far safer compared to his "forbidden maneuver", but it was still pretty nuts. He's just proud of their ability to actually pull both of them off.

Jaune remembers the first time they'd used the Arc Bullet like yesterday...

.

* * *

 _ **2 years ago...**_

.

 _It was just after sunset, the King's Forest was dark and the loud sounds of breaking trees, the thundering of boots hitting soil, and the enraged roar of something deadly echoed through the forest._

 _Frantically, two boys ran through the forest with their feet rapped in soft orange flames. They were jumping over fallen tree's and thick roots as a giant tiger like Grimm chased them the best it could through the thick foliage._

 _It's fur was black as night and had slate grey stripes. The beast had only a few white bone plates on it's body, only the shoulders and tail were covered in the protective armor. Crooked bone spikes protruded along the spine of the beast. The spikes were each about a foot long and had dry blood painting them red at the tips._

 _It's blood red and soulless eyes glared through the night with deadly intent for the young boy's running in front of it._

 _This Grimm was a rare sort called a Nightwalker, not to be confused with a Deathstalker. A Nightwalker the type of Grimm that usually stays in the darker part of the King's Forest were there are fewer trees and for some reason always had dark clouds overhead. This part of the forest was very far from the Dusk Tree were the duo spends most of their time._

 _These Grimm are mostly active at night and early morning, during the day time they lie in wait. Why they do this is unknown, but it's this odd action that gave them their name. This Grimm has been labeled a C rank for it's ferocity and ingenuity in combat, a_ _nd the fact that it can easily kill a careless Hunter._

 _Or maybe even two idiots who were unfortunate to run into it on their way back home._

 _"I hope you have a plan Little Wolf!" Yelled Cardin with a frustrated yet slightly calm tone. Cardin was behind Jaune breaking away tree branches and entire trees with his mace. In an attempt to try and slow down the tiger of death._

 _Due to the extreme panic they were experiencing, the duo's Crest Sight activated which allowed Cardin to come up with the idea to fell tree's as they ran. This idea is probably the only thing keeping them alive as they have finally gained enough distance to breath._

 _"Yes! And its really freaking stupid!"_

 _Jaune replied equally as frustrated as they sprinted into a clearing that was surrounded by a cliff on one end and thick thorn bushes tucked between the majority of the trees around them._

 _"Oh come on Little Wolf! It can't be that bad!" Leo said as he floated next to the boys._

 _His sword, Stars Legacy, was strapped to Jaune's back in a leather sheath and Stars Legacy's sheath was strapped to Cardin's back._

 _"Don't leave me hanging Jaune! What's your plan?!" Cardin asked as they ran for the cliff._

 _""Leo watch for that thing!""_

 _Jaune and Cardin ordered in synch as they continued their desperate sprint forwards. The apparition stopped in the middle of the clearing and turned to the place they entered from._

 _"On it!" Leo's expression turned serious as he watched the tree line._

 _"Alright, so that thing has literally chased us up and down every cliff, tree, and waterfall we've come across." Jaune stated as they kept running to the cliff._

 _"Okay first, we have no choice but to fight it seeing as Master isn't home right now."_

 _"And how do we do that?" Cardin asked with his natural scowl as they used Grip to get up to a high ledge on the jagged cliff face. When they made it to the ledge the Nightwalker crashed into the clearing. Giving a mighty roar as it started to run at the cliffs so it can kill the fools who tried to drop trees, big rocks, and a Beowolf on its head._

 _"Hey! It's back and super pissed!" The ghostly lion faunus yelled at them while waving._

 _Jaune gave Cardin a nervous smile and laugh, "Hehe... Well, uh, this is what we're going to do..."_

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the present...**_

.

"You know," Jaune looked at his buddy from the corner of his eye, "without you I can't even DO Arc Bullet, it's as much yours as it's mine. Not to mention that YOUR the one that came up with the name." The blonde knight gave Cardin a smirk of his own.

"Man, you really can't take credit for ANY of your ideas? I may have NAMED most of them, but you have a horrible naming sense to begin with so it was necessary." Snorted Cardin as he kept his gaze trained on the bear.

"Sh-shut up!" Jaune blushed.

"Nope." Cardin had a smug look as he still kept his eye's on Asru.

"Anyways, you need to show some pride Little Wolf. I'd be dead without you and your crazy/painful plans that somehow always work when it's NOT Thursday. Which is why I'm doing the planning today." Cardin said bluntly.

Jaune just sighed at the barbarian he calls friend.

"Who would have thought though..." Jaune looked up at their Master who was relaxing in the tree taking a puff of her fake cinnamon scented smoke.

"That keeping the Arc Bullet and the "forbidden maneuver" secret from our Master would lead to those crazy, and frankly stupid, plans becoming our last hope to defeat a silver plated bear our Master literally pulled out of no where." The blonde knight rolled his eyes and turned his gaze on the armored bear that still had that same calm and confident air to it.

"Me, and you're welcome." Cardin still had his smug grin as he looked at his partner from the corner of his eye.

"You're not wrong." Jaune shook his head with a small smile at his friends reply.

"That's it? I thought I was going to get a lecture on how conceited I am!" Cardin asked mischievously in mock surprise. Jaune gave a small laugh at his sarcastic best friend as they kept their gaze trained on the silver armored war-bear and the gun slinging pirate they call Master.

"Your not even close to conceited in my book, your just Sir Sarcastic." Joked the blonde knight.

"I remember when Koko knighted you that as a joke, and how you gave her the title "Queen of Badassery." They laughed at the memory.

"Besides..."

"Hm?" Cardin grunted to show he was listening.

"You and me gave up a lot to be here, so there is no way EITHER of us are conceited or cocky for that matter." Jaune's grip tightened on the Blast Roots in his hands.

 _'I'm gonna keep my promise to you, Macha.'_

.

* * *

 _ **2 years ago, a month BEFORE the Nightwalker encounter...**_

.

 _"Big brother!" A girl with blonde hair in a short French braid and blue eyes just like mine charged into my room._

 _"Why did you do that?!" She yelled at me causing me to flinch at the volume._

 _"I did "that" for BOTH of us Macha." I said as I packed up my clothes and hooked Crocea Mors sheath to my belt._

 _'I'll have to get the sword later when that bastard isn't around, shouldn't be to hard since he's never here...' I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at that thought._

 _"But why?!" The girl cried out._

 _"If I'd known that my dream of being a knight would make you go away I wouldn't have said anything! I wouldn't have let you help me train!" Tears rolled down her cheeks and it crushed my heart to see my own twin sister this way._

 _"Macha listen..." I grabbed her shoulders gently to try and calm her down._

 _"Dad-Hadvar..." I corrected myself bitterly._

 _"Wouldn't acknowledge my pride, my honor, and MY dreams." I seethed just from remembering my argument with him that happened only minutes ago._

 _We stayed silent for a moment as she looked down at the floor._

 _"But that isn't what made me decide to do this." Macha looked up at me curiously._

 _Even though I was born after her she refused to call me anything but "big brother". We were the second pair of twins to be born to our parents, and the forth and fifth children out of eight at that. Macha wasn't like our other six sisters. She liked to wear pants and t-shirts, things that our dad would never let her wear and I'd have to lend to her in secret._

 _Macha and me wanted to become warriors since we were small, we'd practice fighting with some wooden swords we'd make from the thick sticks in the King's Forest that bordered our little village. Everyday we'd go and train how to fight together, and I'd instruct her on the things dad had taught me in the little amount of time he'd come home._

 _I was never very good with a sword and clumsy even with a wooden one. Dad had given up teaching me how to wield one when I was 12 because I didn't have a "Natural Arc Talent" for it. The village guards all used guns so we couldn't ask them to teach us. Later on when we were older, we asked Master._

 _But she didn't even know the parts of a sword let alone how to wield it properly._

 _Macha was different from me though, she was the one with the "Natural Arc Talent". We both got better together but she was still leagues better then me. She never held back against me when we'd spar though, that always made me happy._

 _Even if it hurt really bad._

 _Whenever we'd fight I'd always try to make it hard for her by fighting in unorthodox ways. We trained together whenever I wasn't training with Master, and since it was just the two of us we developed the same sword style. Because of how weird our fights got our single sword style is pretty weird as well and highly unpredictable._

 _Like, who throws their sword between their hands or changes to a reverse grip DURING a fight?_

 _So when I got Crocea Mors from mom because dad told her to throw it in the basement, I was super happy. But I also wished Macha could have a sword too. So I saved up all my lien I'd get helping Master for two years to buy her a ticket to forge her own sword when we turned 14 last year. It was perfect because after I got Crocea Mors, Macha would talk about how she was going to make a sword just like it someday. But without the sheath shield, she sucks at using a shield._

 _That always made Cardin and me laugh a little._

 _Buying a ticket for a forge is a LOT of money, but the good news is that depending on the ticket you bought you can use as much equipment and materials needed for your project. Since Macha was going to make a sword I got a basic ticket. Even though it was a basic ticket, it still coasted me a ton of lien which was totally worth it. It made Macha so happy that I lost the ability to breath for a solid 15 seconds._

 _Macha has surprisingly strong arms even though she looked so thin and frail, I bet she could arm wrestle every guy in the village and win!_

 _Anyways, after I regained my ability to breath we spent all our time at the forge for two whole month's in Black Stone city just past the King's Forest. A far walk from White Hill village where we live, but we usually make the trip anyways. She named her sword White Moon because she infused the blade with some rare white fire Dust that Cardin got her for her birthday that year. When she gets her Aura unlocked she can use that fire Dust in the blade, but for now it's like any other sword. The swords grip was rapped in dark purple instead of blue like on Crocea Mors. And the sheath had the entire Arc symbol on it, but in dark purple as well._

 _She really likes purple for some reason and it's infected me, but I'm trying really hard to think orange thoughts to fix that._

 _Moving on!_

 _We've had so many crazy adventures since we were little, even some with Cardin and Master. Though Macha has never met the rest of Cardin's family, but she's decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them when she does. That made me happy considering Dad's burning hatred for all things Winchester in the world. Hell Dad hates the Schnee Dust Company just because they do business with the Winchester's Dust mines out here in the middle of nowhere._

 _All together I love my twin sister to death and would do anything for her, and even though Dad disowned me I don't care. Because I'll always have my twin sister Macha._

 _"HE refused to acknowledge that YOUR strong. HE refused you your dream of becoming a Knight of Vale when i've told HIM over and over again that I want to be a Huntsmen." I looked her dead in the eyes with all my conviction._

 _"You deserve to become a knight, and Hadvar needs to see that you're strong enough to fight with the "big boys". He can't live in a world where men are supposed to fight and woman have to stay at home forever." I gave her a small smile and a flick to the forehead._

 _"Hey..." Macha pouted at my actions._

 _"I know that you will become a true Arc Knight. One that even Red Arc, The Dragon Hero, would be scared of." A goofy smile spread across my face._

 _"But-" Macha looked me in the eyes with an anxiety I know all to well._

 _"How do you know I can be that strong? How do you know that I would even be accept-" I put a finger over Machas' lips, making her go cross eyed. Then I head-butted her, HARD._

 _ **THUNK!**_

 _"OW!" Macha reached up and rubbed her forehead, giving me her best glare, which is just about as effective as my own._

 _We can't even scare a puppy with our glare..._

 _"Because one of Hadvar's mortal enemies, Diana Winchester, is a Knight of Vale. And she is revered to be three times stronger then HIM and on par with freaking Sir Midnight du Lok! If any of those sexist squires or knights try anything I'm sure she would help you beat all of them up! She IS Cardin's mom after all and I'm pretty sure I've told you how protective they are of their flock, and since your my sister you're part of the flock by default."_

 _She finally laughed and put my heart a little bit at ease. I hate hurting people, even more so when it comes to the people I care for._

 _"I just don't want you to leave. The villagers avoid me because I'm the "Weird Arc Girl" and our sisters don't even sure how to talk to me because I don't like to do... Girl things." Macha eked out with a nervous and sad laugh._

 _"I just- I'll miss the only person that actually, uh, gets me?" Her face twisted in thought as she tried to figure out if that's the best way to put it._

 _We really are a lot alike._

 _"Don't worry Macha." I rested my forehead on hers._

 _"Even if we're apart, we're always together. That's what it means to be family." And I meant it with all my heart._

 _"Man you are such a sap brother..." She closed her eyes, "and you need to stop using mom's lines."_

 _She opened her eyes and moved her head away from mine to meet my questioning stare._

 _"They are super corny." She gave me a mirror of my own goofy smile as she said that. We laughed and it was almost like I never had a fight with Dad._

 _'We really are twins, right down to the goofy smile.' I thought with a smile._

 _"Don't worry little sis, you know where Master lives by now so you can always come and see me whenever you want and if you'd like..."_

 _It was her turn to give me a questioning gaze as I gave her a goofy grin._

 _"When I get into Beacon I'll unlock your Aura the first chance we get. From what I know the squire's stationed all over the kingdom go to Vale once a month for some sort of meeting thingy."_

 _I smiled at her as we parted from each other and she grabbed both my hands with all of her pure (and painfully strong) excitement._

 _"REALLY BIG BROTHER!?" I had to hold back a yelp from the shear strength of her grip._

 _"I swear it."_

 _'Now I'd like to have blood flow in my fingers back, I can't use my weapon if I lose them thank you very much.'_

 _"Thank you." She smiled warmly as she released my broken feeling hands._

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the present...**_

.

"Thinking about Macha?" Cardin asked as the knight duo was getting ready to put their plan into motion. They only had about a minute left before they begin.

"Huh? Uh, yeah, I was..." A solemn expression graced Jaune's face and Cardin took a deep breath letting it out slowly.

 _'Okay Cardin, time to act like a good friend.'_ Thought the barbarian who knew he sucked at these kinds of things.

"You know Mr. Big Brother."

 _'Great job Cardin, start it off by poking fun of him. That's exactly how your supposed to start off all comforting conversations.'_ He mentally slapped himself.

"Hmm?"

"You know my own elder brother Genesis is watching out for her right? He volunteered to team up with Macha not because you're MY friend, but because YOUR important to him as well. My own father forcibly made you a member of our family, or as Master likes to call it, our "flock". Which means that you're one of our own, and that means we defend and watch each other's six."

Cardin got an evil grin, "Besides, that picture Genesis took of Hadvar Lightning Blade all slack jawed that a Winchester VOLUNTEERED to partner up with HIS DAUGHTER was classic!"

They laughed at the memory of Jaune's dad freaking out that his sworn enemies SON, who became a squire last year and never got a partner, is now his daughters partner for the rest of her career in the Knight's of Vale.

"I wasn't worried about Macha, my clumsy sister is probably with the only guy I'd ever allow in her presence for more then 10 minutes." The knight duo sniggered at that, Genesis is more in love with his lance then what would be considered healthy. Not only that but Genesis is a master at using several other kinds of weapons and fire arms, the guys a genius in a very insane way.

So not only is Macha safe from being stuck with a guy that might try and date her without Jaune's blessing, which is very much needed as well as a wedding ring in his opinion. But Macha also has the bonus of being partnered with a weapon manic who could probably rob the SDC for every last Lien and speck of Dust with only a fork and six shooter.

AND GET AWAY WITH IT.

"I was just remembering the conversation we had after my fight with HIM." Jaune replied sullenly as he gripped the Blast Roots Cardin gave him tighter.

"He did disown me and then I just up and left that night."

 _'I only said goodbye to Macha and just blew off the rest of them.'_ Juane hung his head, _'I'm horrible.'_

"Well at least you settled things with your mom a couple months back, hell she even brought you the other half of Crocea Mors." Cardin said as he looked down at the blade resting in it's sheath.

"Yeah... At least I got Mom and Macha now, maybe I can make up with my other sisters too."

Jaune activated his Crest Sight when he saw Cardin activate his own. His yellow moons appeared on his cheeks while Cardin's golden wing appeared over his right eye.

" **BEGIN!** " Koko yelled from her position and lined up her sights.

"Well I suggest not even bothering with Hadvar, he doesn't matter, he's a weak boot licking herbivore after all." Cardin grinned evilly as he prepared to IMT(Instant Movement) right in front of Asru and give it a nice bashing.

"So look alive sunshine!" Yelled the mace touting menace with glee.

 **WOOSH!**

In a blink Cardin IMT'd across the field ducking low in an attempt to smash Asru in the face with Mea Culpa while she was still on all fours.

 **Tink.**

Only to be stopped instantly by it's silver plated claws with little to no effort. Causing the over zealous knight to nearly clothesline himself on the shaft of the mace.

"Really?" Cardin said with a deadpan as he looked up at his Master who was cackling in the tree high above him.

"Haha! Did ya really think that would work?" A smug grin spread across her face.

 _'Yes, yes I did.'_ The cardinal thought but decided just to sigh and pull out with an short IMT from Asru to get some distance.

"Now get ready ya little shits!" Koko raised her rifle and started to fire at Cardin while Asru moved in with controlled swipes.

 **BANG!**

 **SWISH!**

The two bear's were in perfect synch with each other and giving Cardin a hard time, even if they were holding back. That just proves how much harder they will have to work for this. The mace wielder was deflecting blow after blow with his mace and vambraces from the large bear and trying not to get hit square in the head with a rubber bullet all at the same time. He was extremely frustrated with this situation but he had to keep their attention. Cardin knew that if he lost their attention then Jaune would be discovered. If that happened then it's game, set, match.

So to complete this objective and not get mauled by the bear's he had to do what he did best.

 _'It's finally time...'_ Was his last thougth before he opened the flood gates of every thought that crosses his mind.

Which was nothing but obscure references and puns.

"This is one GRIZZLY situation!" Cardin smirked as he saw Koko and Asru give him a pointed glare as they increased their efforst to take down the hopeless comedian without killing him.

"What?" Smirked the pun enthusiast as he dove to the side to dodge Asru and put the giant bear in the path of his Master's fire.

"I thought that one was BEAR-rific." He grinned evilly as the war-bear started swinging more and more with less focus on where the attacks went.

 _'That's right, focus on the nice PUN-tiful picknick basket Yogi.'_ Cardin's smirk grew as he watched Jaune from the corner of his eye make his way to a good position for the plan.

 _'Hehe, you and Bubu are going down!'_ Was his thought as he continued his distractions.

.

* * *

 _ **After Cardin IMT'd...**_

.

 _'Dust! I can't believe that Cardin's actually able to survive them both at the same time. I wonder how he's able to distract them so well though?'_

Jaune thought while running diagnoly to Koko's right side, when he finally made it to a good position just inside of Koko's literal blind spot. The blonde knight got the answer to his question.

"HEY YOGI! YOU ARE NOT SMARTER THEN THE ADVERAGE BEAR!" Was the mace weilders childish remark.

"QUIT IT WITH YER STUPID REFERENCES!" Yelled the bear faunus in a controlled and mildly annoyed voice.

 **Loud bear noises!**

"If I had lungs I'd be DEAD!" Leo was clutching his stomach and had a hand over his mouth doing everything in his ghostly power to not howl with laughter.

 _'Should have guessed Sir Sarcastic would use his natural ability to make horrible puns to do it.'_ Jaune rolled his eyes.

 _'Crest Sight is so weird when it comes to anger though. I can tell Master is angry, but she just sounds like she's a mildly annoyed... It's super freaky, but also pretty scary.'_ Jaune thought to himself with wonder as he watched the strange battle from a safe distance.

Shaking his head, Jaune got down to business and found a good angle at Koko's position for his part of the plan. While his best friend just BEAR-ly(couldn't help it), fended off the two grizzly's.

 _'Okay time to do my part! Please don't blow up in my face Mr. Blast Root.'_

Pulling one of the dry roots from the bundle, Jaune pooled his flames into his hands creating a Boost and snapped it in half.

 **CRACK!**

Because of the root being dried, the orange dust inside solidified and nearly petrified the wood of the root making it almost like an organic crystal. The blonde knight pointed the broken ends at Koko and did what he did best...

 _'Wind don't blow it away! Wind don't blow it away! Wind don't blow it away!'_

Chant in his head and pray to Dust that he doesn't screw up.

.

* * *

 _ **Jaune and Koko's fire fight...**_

.

 **Bang!**

 **Bang!**

Bright orange flares shot from the broken ends of the Blast Root and sailed through the sky one after the other.

"Looks like team grizzly is BLASTING off again!" Cardin sounded absolutely giddy from being able to make so many puns and referencing during his fight.

 _'Seriously Cardin!? We're in the middle of a fight!'_ Jaune thought as he heard the cardinal yell over the sounds of gun fire and destruction.

 _'You'd think that he'd at least take it seriously seeing as he has a trigger happy author and war-bear trying to beat the crap out of him!'_ Jaune shook his head and groaned at his crazy fight-happy best friend.

Upon hearing Cardin's latest reference, Koko turned to Jaune's direction and noticed her error in the form of an exploding flare.

"Oh shit!"

 **BOOM!**

Koko had ducked low from the first shot that had shortly exploded above her. She slung the rifle over her shoulder quickly but was caught off guard again as she flinched in pain from an invisible source, gripping her right arm.

 **BOOM!**

The second shot rang out as it struck the branch she was on, causing it to shack from the impact and nearly throwing her off. Koko quickly jumped off before the branch fully snapped and fell to the ground seconds laters.

As she jumped Koko grabbed a lower branch that nearly broke from her weight. Taking a quick look around the bear faunus swung down to a more sturdy branch as Jaune was preparing another Blast Root to fire at her. Swinging her rifle off her shoulder in one fluid motion she lined up her sights on Jaune. The gun touting grizzly bear fired four shots at him with slightly obscured accuracy due to the pain in her right arm that is steadying her gun.

 **Bang! x4**

"WOAH!" Dropping the Blast Root when he saw Koko raise her rifle, Jaune expanded Crocea Mors' shield to defend himself from the rubber bullets.

 **Tink! x4**

"HAHA!" Jaune boasted with a triumphent grin as he looked over his shield at her.

 **Bang!**

 **CRACK!**

Only for that triumphent grin to turn into annoyance when he heard an all to familiar noise.

Looking straight down behind his shield Jaune saw that Koko had fired the last bullet at the Blast Root that he just dropped to defend himself. The root wasn't completely broken, which means that it was going to blow up like a bomb.

Right under him.

If he didn't move in the next 3 seconds...

"You have got to me kidding me..." Jaune IMT'd backwards 10 feet and ducked behind his shield dropping the rest of the Blast Roots in his escape.

 **BOOM!**

Rocks flew everywhere, with patches of tall grass and dryed broken tree limbs scattered across the field to catch fire from the explosive Dust. Filling the place with dust and smoke, effectly concealing Jaune's position from Koko and making him wish he'd brought a pair of goggles.

 _'Note to self: Buy a good pair of goggles and add them to one of your pouches.'_

After firing her shots, Koko activated her Aura to heal her right arm that looked slightly red. She reloaded her rifle, since she emptied it on the knight to get some breathing room. She watched as the exposion went off and the blonde's position became obscured by smoke and fire.

"Lucky little shit..." Koko took a drag of her fake cigarette and then snuffed it out on her boot, flicking the cinnamon scented stick to the ground below.

Thinking quick, the lucky swordsman scanned his surrounding and dove behind one of the large jutting rock formations sticking out of the ground. Getting himself some cover from the trigger happy bear faunus.

"Come 'ere Little Wolfy!" Sang the psycho gun touting women as the smoke and dust continued to conceal the area.

 _'Yup I'm totally going to just pop out from cover and say, "Hey! I'm over here!" to the crazy person with a gun.'_ The knight rolled his eyes as he sat against the rock.

As Koko was scanning the area she saw that Jaune had dropped all of the Blast Roots on the ground in his escape through the smoke filled area. Smiling to herself she took aim at the scattered roots firing at one in the middle of the pile.

 **Bang!**

 **CRACK!**

After hearing the dreadful cracking noise Juane quickly inspected his hands to find them empty.

 _'No...'_

Then patted down every pocket on his person till he came to one conclusion.

 _'NO NO NO!'_

Finally he looked around the boulder slightly and saw the roots.

 _'She didn't...'_ Jaune thought with wide eyes as he quickly threw himself on the ground behind the boulder in anticipation for the big explosion.

 **BOOM!**

With the explosion the other roots were sent flying and Koko took aim at each one that was flying through the air.

 **Bang! x 4**

 **CRACK! x 4**

 _'Welp thats the end of ALL my ranged ammo...'_

 **BOOM! x4**

Jaune cringed and covered his ears as the roots exploded around him. Koko had shot them in the air and close to the ground, thanks to the amount of dust in the roots fire rained down on the field, catching even MORE grass on fire.

Filling the area with about twice as much smoke as before.

 _'And there goes my line of sight, just great...'_ Jaune rolled his eyes as he sat up and looked past his cover.

For what felt like hours to Jaune and Koko, they waited for the other to make a move. It was actually about 20 minutes in reality. Both of them were extremely patient people during their stalemate, unlike their partners. They could hear the bout between them going on in the background.

Kind of hard not to when a grizzly bear and barbarian are going at it.

But neither of them wanted to run the risk of getting hit by the other if they go to their aid. So for now they'd play the waiting game while the fire and smoke filled the clearing.

Silently thanking Dust for the mental clarity of Crest Sight, the blonde knight decided to focus on what he needs to do now that Koko's done shooting at him.

 _'Okay so, I got Koko to move to a lower branch for the Little Cardinal. That's one objective complete, but I lost ALL of the Blast Roots in the process. I hope Cardin didn't need those for anything...'_ Juane cringed at the thought of what the barbarian would do if he needed those roots for his strategy.

 _'All I can do now is wait for Cardin to give me some sort of signal and hope that Asru didn't knock him out. Though I do hope that Arc Bullet actually works, or else we're so screwed.'_

Jaune sighed heavily and steeled his gaze once more, _'Well that all depends on the Little Cardinal actually getting away from Asru.'_

 **THUNK!**

Speaking of Cardin, he just LITERALLY landed in Jaune's lap.

"Really?"

"What?" Cardin looked up at Jaune with a happy grin.

.

* * *

 _ **Cardin's fight with Asru starting from about 20 minutes ago...**_

.

Ducking under a swing and spinning behind the bear, Cardin had to spin his weapon in front of him to deflect some of Koko's fire. Then duck AGAIN as another swing from Asru came close, the bear had tried to give him a silver claw back hand to the face.

 _'Hurry up you blonde idiot I'm running out of good material!'_ Cardin gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to his limits and waited for Jaune to make his move.

 **CRACK!**

 _'Music to my ears! It's time for THAT line!'_

"Looks like team grizzly is BLASTING off again!"

The mace touting menace called out after a bullet ricocheted off his shoulder guard and he jumped back from a horizontal swipe aimed at his chest.

A grin like a predator inched across his face as he saw Koko turn to Jaune's position, giving him a nice view of her surprise as the Blast Roots explosive energy came flying towards her.

"Oh shit!"

Was the only thing Cardin heard before the explosion.

 **BOOM!**

Cardin smirked at his friends handy work and turned his gaze back to his opponent. He noticed that the silver plated war-bear had stopped it's assault and seemed to be looking at something not there with a surprised expression.

 **WHACK!**

Taking the opportunity handed to him, Cardin swung his mace at Asru's right arm imbedding it slightly into it's thick hide.

 **BANG!**

Then pushed the pretty red button on the grip to set off the red dust crystal installed in Mea Culpa. Making the beast howl in pain as its right arm became ingulfed in flames. The explosive mace wielder looked up to the tree's and saw his Master clutch her right arm in pain.

 _'Just what I wanted to see!'_

Smirked Cardin as he dove back into his own battle with Asru. Hearing the second Blast Roots flare ring out while he started to exchange blows with Asru on equal footing now without the gun touting author.

"Lets go teddy!"

Taunted the mace touting cardinal as he went head-to-head with the war-bear. Cloaking his right hand in flames to Grip and Boost Mea Culpa at the same time. Cardin then Boosted his left hand to deflect blows with his steel vambraces. This exchange lasted for 15 minutes with Cardin feeling confident in his skills.

But the whole time, his Crest Sight told him something wasn't right.

After a few more minutes of exchanging blows Cardin finally noticed what it was. Asru has more speed and strength then the adverage Ursa Major and the thing was actually just gauging the berserker cardinals strength.

Thats when Cardin realized he is so screwed without his blonde shield baring idiot.

Cardin has to find a way to break contact with Asru and fast. Like any berserker he sucks at defending himself in long battles. The blonde may not be that good with a sword but his shieldmanship is grade A material. The guy can block a freakin Nevermore's feathery machinegun of death, and not just once or twice. He's done it 7 times in a row one day!

Cardin's fighting style revolves around having SOMEONE back him up so he can make the big hits to finish the battle quickly. He only wears the heavy armor because he can support it with no problem and it keeps him safe during his short battle's because he's always full of openings.

The berserker cardinal has to find his buddy, he's got the proof he needed for his strategy. Now they have to move onto the second phase, Arc Bullet.

 _'Now where is my blonde doofus at?'_

Cardin IMT'd right out of Asru's range and scanned the area as Asru came charging back at him. That's when he noticed the smoke and crater where Jaune was standing before. As well as all the smoke and fire covering a good portion of the clearing.

 _'20 lien says he's alive and hiding behind a rock.'_ Thought the sarcastic knight.

"ROAR!"

 _'Oh yeah, there's a silver plated magic bear of mass destruction after me. Almost forgot about that.'_ Deadpanned the mace weilder as he watched Asru draw near.

Without any other option Cardin decided to charge the war-bear. They engaged in combat again in the field of fire and smoke near the crater Jaune had been standing in.

Cardin could see the confident smirk on Asru's face as they met blow for blow. Neither of them allowing the other to land a hit on the body. But it was panfully obvious to Cardin's Crest Sight enhanced senses that Asru was playing with him.

Then Asru dropped her guard for a second and Cardin took the "chance".

Read: "Bait"

The hot-head swung high at the armored bear who caught his mace with it's silver claws. Not giving even an inch as Cardin tugged on his mace, the war-bear grinned evilly just like their Master.

 _'It even has Master's evil grin?! Now I know for a fact that these two are almost completely connected, hell at this point I'd believe that it's Master's freaking sister!'_ Thought the hot-head as he tried to figure out what the bear was going to do.

"Oh n-!" Cardin didn't get to finish as the bear grabbed Mea Culpa with both paws and spun around to gain momentum to do the one thing Cardin never thought it would do.

Throw him and his mace a good 20 feet just over one of the large jutting rocks through the smoke and fire that Jaune had just been standing in.

 **THUNK!**

"Really?" Asked the blonde.

"What?"

He couldn't help but smile, he just got tossed by his strongest opponent yet like he was a play toy. The barbarian was completely pumped to beat the crap out of it now. They won't even understand the lack of sanity in what hit them!

.

* * *

 _ **Their fight together...**_

.

"How did this," Jaune guestered to Cardin laying in his lap, "even happen?"

"If you must know, Asru threw me and I just happened to land on you by chance."

"Do you think she saw where you landed?"

"Probably, Master and Asru really do share all the same senses from what I could figure out. So it would be no surprise if Master watched me sail across the field to this very spot."

If Jaune wasn't using his Crest Sight, Cardin is more then sure that the blonde would be freaking out.

"Which means we have them right where we want them." Cardin smirked as he rolled of his best friends lap.

"Arc Bullet?" Jaune said with confidence and resolve.

"Hell yeah! If we hit Asru hard enough then it might be enough to end the fight." Cardin matched his gaze and tone.

The knight duo stood up to peer over the tall rock. Scanning the clearing they saw the silver plated bear stalking over to their location slowly. Toying with it's prey that didn't dare make a sudden move due to the thought of getting shot with rubber bullets by a certain smut author in a tree.

 _'Why is it that everyone else gets to look badass but me?'_

 _'Great, the warrior bear has come to finish off the puney humans that think they can win.'_

Were Juane's(depressed) and Cardin's(sarcastic) thoughts as they watched Asru come towards them through the smoke and fire. It looked like a war zone with all the craters, fire, and smoke.

Jaune expanded Crocea Mors' sheath-shield but didn't draw his sword with his, "I-am-completely-done-with-this ", look on his face. The duo backed up several feet from the rock they have been hiding behind.

Jaune poured a huge amount of orange flames into his feet, making a roaring fire. He bended his knees in preparation to jump and had both hands on his sheath-shield with his sword stored inside.

"You ready for this?" Cardin asked.

"Oh yeah." Jaune smirked a little and Cardin raised a brow at him.

"What? I can't be excited to do something insanely stupid but looks totally freaking cool?" Jaune said with a goofy smile at his best friend who just chuckled.

The berserker could hear the pounding of Asru's heavy steps as it drew near to their cover.

The duo closed their eyes to focus even better with his Crest Sight, heightening all their other senses. Grabbing his mace with both hands, Cardin held it straight out behind Jaune. The mace wielder then poured his own flames into his hands and feet making them burst with power.

They calmed their breathing in synch with each other as they waited.

 **THUD!**

Asru jumped over the large rock and landed in front of the duo on it's hind legs. Only for it's eyes to widen when it saw their immense display of control over the Heart of Will's flames.

.

* * *

 _ **When Jaune hid and Cardin was still fighting Asru...**_

.

"The lil' shit heads both 'ave talent with the Heart of Will." Koko rubbed her arm that got indirectly burned from Cardin's attack.

"Ya knew that I'd get injured from that attack, or were ya just testing a theory Little Cardinal?" She said softly as she watched the smoke for any sign of the knight. The only thing she could see of was Cardin through Asru's eyes.

"ARGH!"

"Oi! Leo!" Koko looked down at the apparition, he was grabbing his head while hunched forwards.

But as quickly as the pain came, it was gone for the lion faunus and he soon released his head and leaned against the tree again. He slid down the trunk of the tree to sit on the ground, exhausted from whatever the hell happened to him.

"Hehe," Came a sad chuckle from below, "Heart of Will is so weak when compared to Aura..."

The bear faunus looked down at the ghostly lion sitting against the base of the tree. She rose a brow when she noticed his tone, it was a tone they never heard him have.

"They have immense talent, and I can feel their flames from here. Those two just burn that brightly." The lion said with the same sad and small voice.

"No shit! Those two got hearts half as big as the damn planet!" Koko laughed to try and lighten Leo's mood.

It didn't work.

Koko huffed and scratched her head, "Though ya are right, Aura's version of Boost can be done with lil' training in Aura manipulation. It's even stronger in fact when compared to Heart of Will's version. And with hardwork and practice anyone with Aura can preform Grip, but unlike with the flame they can even walk on water."

Koko frowned deeply in thought.

"But Aura is ment for combat in the first place, Heart of Will is not." Koko finished with a sigh.

"Pretty much..." Sulked the see-through lion.

"Leo what's up with that tone?" Koko looked at the boy with concern.

"I just remembered something..." Leo said which made Koko raise a brow.

"I fought with a lot of people who used Aura, but not one of them even bothered using their Heart of Will if they had it." Leo raised a ghostly hand in front of his face.

"Because it was weak... No one, not even me, could produce a Boost strong enough to compete with an Aura infused attack. Even if I could make a flame strong enough, I'd tear my arm or leg to bits." Leo looked at his hand with all his frustration.

"Because Heart of Will's Boost uses your own muscle energy that the brain limits for the reason of keeping us from hurting ourselves. It lets us tap into our true power when we Boost. But Heart of Will is only meant for running away and surviving..."

Koko listened to him, taking a silent oath to remember everything Leo says.

"The funny thing is, my Aura was so weak. It could barely protect me and I nearly died so many times fighting. I had to use my Heart of Will if I wanted to live, I had no choice. I was always so scared of fighting Grimm and people when I was alive."

The fear showed in his eyes as his gaze seemed to drift from his palm to a place Koko would never see.

"But I never lost because I was in tune with my heart, my fear of death. Aura users become so complacent with their "protective shield" that they forget that they are mortal. In the end I always won in those few fights I had against other people. Because I was the one fearing for their life, and didn't ever hold back..."

The lion chuckled dryly.

"It's funny, I only seem to remember my battles and not anything really personal. But just from those fights I know what kind of person I was. I was a coward that never gave up, an idiot who truely followed their heart, and a guy who always had to watch his six because his "friends" always betrayed him in the end."

Leo looked up from his hand at Koko.

"I was alone..." His gaze drifted back to his hand with such pain it crushed Koko's heart. It worried her to no end what he's confining in her.

"My heart was forged through pain, loneliness, and suffering."

Leo finally grew a sad, but honest, smile as he continued to stare at his palm. "You guys are the same as me, yet different, and that makes me happy."

Leo took a breath and activated his own Crest Sight. His symbol, a crescent moon and star, were etched onto his upper back by the warm and gentle orange flames of his Heart of Will.

"You have so much pain, but you all push right through it together."

A orange ember burned in the palm of his ghostly hand.

"You are alone in your own ways, but you have each other to lean on."

The ember grew into a flame.

"You suffer from so many things, yet you never give up because you want to protect each other."

The flame started to glow brightly with it's soft light.

"These feelings that forge the strength present in each of our heart's, are the same. But the way we grew strong from those feelings is different."

Leo slowly snuffed out the flame by curling his finger's into his palm, a sad smile across his face. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back to feel the breeze, he finally felt somewhat at peace...

Until Koko's colorful language seriously ruined the moment.

"Asru! Don' throw the damn idiot bird! You'll kill 'em!" Koko groaned as she covered her eyes with her hand.

"But Asru is a part of who you are Koko. The Little Cardinal probably fell for a obvious trick or something and Asru did what you would." Leo said with his usual smile, happy for the distraction.

"And we both know you would punish him in a violent way for that~!" Finished the ghost which caused the author to laugh.

"Ya know, I like it better when yer like this. Even if the things ya say are nuts." Koko smiled slightly at the other faunus, happy that he isn't sad or moppy anymore.

The two sat in a comfortable silence as they watched the armored grizzly bear walk over to where the Little Cardinal landed. Then they felt the surge of flames just over the rock and both of them looked at the spot at attention.

" **LET'S DO THIS!** "

"WHAT THE FLYING BOARBATUSK ARE THOSE IDIOTS DOING!?" Koko yelled as she looked through Asru's eyes.

"What!? What's happening!?" Leo put his hands around his eyes like a pair of binoculars in an attempt to see.

" **ARC BULLET!** "

"Oh Dust they're doing it!" The apparitions eye's widened.

"ARGH!" Koko yelled out in pain as she dropped her rifle and nearly fell off the branch she was perched on. Clutching her stomach she closed her eye and shoved her back against the trunk of the tree and slid down.

"Shit that 'urts!" Koko groaned as she flared her brown Aura to heal the damage. Running a hand through her short brown hair as she looked out at the field from her perch. Only to see that her partner had been launched by her Little Wolf right through the rock that the duo had used as cover.

Which explained the pain in her stomach and back.

After the blonde was launched off of Asru he flipped through the air and righted himself. Upon Jaune's landing she couldn't help but gawk at how flawless and cool it was. In the background she could hear Leo clap and whistle for Jaune's awesome landing.

The Little Wolf sent her a winning smile over the top of his shield, which made her write a mental note to add that to a scene into her Ninja's of Love book. One of the ninja allies of the main character IS based on him after all.

"That's a lot of flame power they used, I didn't even think that was possible outside of theory." Koko wondered aloud with a little pride that her students are that good at controling the flame.

Leo just smiled, "Cardin and Jaune have immense control of their flames. Boost normally can only double your natural muscle energy, but with the amount of control they have they can triple it. When they did this the first time they almost broke ALL their bones in their arms and legs. But over the years they slowly tuned it to where they can follow through without doing nearly as much damage to their own bodies."

"Hehe..." Koko gave a dry and pained laugh as she felt the sting in her stomach and back ease, but the exhaustion take over.

"Hm?" The lion faunus looked up at the bear curiously.

"I always knew they're damn good at controling the flame. I always knew they'd kept some secrets about their own training. But I never thought they'd actually try to use these dangerous survival techniques to create combat moves."

"I actually tried to talk them out of it. But they were so determined that I gave up." Sighed the ghost.

"They've nearly killed themselves trying to use the Heart of Will like an Aura. Heart of Will can't heal you, a Boost can break your bones if your not careful, if you can't control the flame well you could screw up on rip and fall to your death, and don't even get me started on Instant Movement's possible death scenarios..."

"Ahmen to that brother, those two will be the death of me one day with how much they make me worry." Koko rolled her eyes as she said that.

"Me too~!" Leo said in a sing song voice and looked at Koko with a wide grin.

"Wait-!" Koko's eye's widened as she tried to stop him, but it was to late.

"But I'm already dead! Death joke~!" Leo sang out to the bear faunus who groaned.

"REALLY I COULDN'T TELL!" Koko yelled, she really wished she could cause the ghost a LITTLE bodily harm.

.

* * *

 _ **A little bit ago...**_

.

" **LET'S DO THIS!** " Bellowed Cardin as the duo kept their eyes closed and poured even more flames out.

 **Tink!**

Jaune jumped up with his Boost and his feet immediately connected to the shaft of Cardin's mace mid swing. The blonde had his shield up and forearms flat behind it in a tight guard. Cardin spun with the momentum of his swing as the the blonde knight Gripped to his mace. On the second revolution Cardin slamed his foot down and swung hard with Jaune releasing the Grip at the hight of the swing.

" **ARC BULLET!** " Yelled the mace weilder as his best friend was luanched forwards at the massive bear with his trusty shield raised.

 **BAM!**

The next few seconds were a blur to the blonde as he felt weightless for only a second and then came into contact with his target. The blonde knight could feel the impact rack his entire body. Straining every muscle and shacking his bones as his shield hit the Metal Head right in the gut launching the bear and himself through the rock the knight duo was using as cover.

Jaunes body was screaming in protest every second as the shock from hitting Asru and then going through the rock nearly broke him. He couldn't help but think that if it wasn't for his Boost to his arms then he would have probably turned into dust and blood, that's how much it hurt.

 _'Time for the tricky part!'_ Jaune thought with a wince and then tucked into a ball behind his shield before they made contact with the ground.

Asru's back was buried in the ground, scaring the earth. Jaune was flung off the war-bears stomach when they hit the ground and launched through the air. Righting himself mid-air with a well practiced landing strategy, Jaune's feet hit the ground with a Boost and he slid forwards a little ways. As he slid across the ground he was in a shield raised combat stance for stability and just in case his momentum tripped him up and he landed on his face.

He'd rather not grate his face off after completing the coolest attack he's ever come up with.

 _'And that is how you execute a landing strategy.'_

Jaune thought as he looked over his shield at his Master and Leo. Koko was looking at him with wide-eyes' and a slack jaw for his awesome landing strategy and Leo was whistling and clapping at him for an encore.

The blonde knight gave them a winning smile and turned back to his best friend.

"Nice job Jaune but we ain't done yet!" Cardin hefted his mace into his combat stance and stared at the downed Metal Head.

"Huh?" Juane looked down at the war-bear to see that it had the same colored Aura as their Master's covering it.

"Great, it has an Aura." The blonde bullet deadpanned as the Metal Head rose from the ground. Jaune could FEEL the anger rolling off the war-bear, and it looked super pissed.

 _'Okay so the war-bear is unaffected by Master's Crest Sight since it looks THAT angry.'_

 **ROAR!**

The war-bear stood and spread it's arms out wide as it probably cursed at the blonde bullet that launched it through a rock.

 _'NOPE!'_

Was the only thought that came to mind as Jaune immediately IMT'd away from the possibly blood thirsty Ex-Grimm. He then made a beeline for his partner, drawing Crocea Mors from it's sheath-shield when he reach the berserkers side.

"Sooo what now?" Jaune asked as he looked at the Metal Head that was glaring daggers at him similar to the Nevermore's that always carried him off.

 _'Looks like old habits really do die hard, even for an Ex-Grimm.'_ The blonde knight was more then sure that if he didn't have his Crest Sight activated he'd probably have fainted from fear.

"We pray that Master will count that as our win." Was Cardin's simple answer, upon seeing his friends annoyed expression he went on.

"Look at the tree." Cardin motioned with his mace infront of them.

"Huh?" Looking up at their Master's perch the blonde saw that she also had Aura surrounding her and that she looked really tired.

"Wait so, they share pain? And since they have the same Aura color does that mean they share an Aura as well?" Jaune asked his best friend.

"Well that's the proof they share pain." Cardin said as he looked at the scene infront of him.

"The second one I'm not to sure about, but I assume they do since the Aura appeared on both of them and those are susposed to be unique to each person."

"Little Cardinal..." Jaune looked at his partner with a well practiced deadpann.

"Yes Little Wolf?" Cardin answered with his well practiced smirk.

"We're going to go with "forbidden maneuver" if she doesn't call it our win, arn't we?" Jaune didn't know what he expected from asking, but he had to ask just incase Cardin had a back up plan besides THAT.

"Yup."

 _'I'm so screwed...'_ Thought the blonde knight.

Patting his friends shoulder with his left hand, the cardinal and wolf got into their combat stances as the Metal Head growled at them.

"If I die, my Will is on my cot. Don't worry all the paper work has already been taken care of." Jaune stated with a resigned sigh.

"You're not going to die." Cardin chuckled at his friend who laughed a little with him, though it was more of a nervous laugh then a happy one.

"Your going to live whether you like it or not. I can't image life without my best friend, I mean who else in the world can come up with extremly painful battle maneuvers that only a crazy person would try and a genius could pull off." Cardin smirked at his best friend.

"Oh stop it!" Jaune said bashfully to the praise.

"Wait..." Cardin squinted as though he just realised something and then looked at the blonde next to him.

"Did you really write your Will already?"

 **GRRRR!**

Asru, finally fed up with the duo ignoring her, made her presence known from across the field. They watched as the war-bear got on all fours and readied it's self to charge at the boys. Both of them nearly kick themselves for acting so casual in a combat situation.

"Just our adverage Thursday," Cardin rolled his eyes and looked at the war-bear, "eh Little Wolf?" Cardin gave the pissed off beast a feral grin.

Jaune just sighed, "I really hate Thursday's." The blonde knight took his fighting stance with a bit of pain. His joint's were killing him and his muscles screamed for him to put his weapon down. But he's learned to ignore his bodies pleas when it comes to survival.

 _'Thursday always bites me in the butt and makes me question my mortality.'_ He rolled his eyes as he waited for the bear to charge.

"And to answer your first question Little Cardinal."

Cardin turned his head to the blonde with a quirked brow.

"Yes, I have already wrote my Will."

 **ROAR!**

And with the war-cry of the bloodthirsty beast before them, the duo once again focused on the battle. Asru charged forwards ready to tear them to pieces as they prepared for the fight to come.

" **THAT'S ENOUGH!** " Koko called out.

Asru stopped mid-charge and then turned to give her master a death glare for not letting her maul the puny humans.

Koko gave Asru a glare that froze not only the grizzly bear, but Jaune and Cardin who were also in her line of sight. The brown bear's paw on her left eye was fading as she walked over to the group. Clutched in her hands was Leo's sword, to which the ghost attached was right on her heels.

"They 'ave proven their Mastery and would have defeated ya if I didn' heal ya with MY Aura."Koko stated sternly to which Asru flinched slightly.

"So stand down Asru, or I will remind ya why, I'M YER MASTER." Koko said in a harsh tone to the Ex-Grimm, the poor thing looked terrified.

 _'What the hell did Master do to you Asru?!'_ Jaune thought as Cardin and him deactivated their own Crest Sight's.

"Look's like we won't have to worry about your Will now." Cardin chuckled at Jaune who just collapsed onto his butt and dropped his weapons.

"Oh thank Dust! I was NOT ready to die!" Jaune exclaimed dramatically after he sat down.

"You guy's did amazing!" Leo said with a giddy smile at the knight's, making them feel a small bit of pride.

"Leo's right, ya both done good." Koko praised, furthering their sense of pride.

"Now..." Koko started as she grinned as the duo while crossing her arms.

"What ya boy's say 'bout learning what "Calls" and "Metal Head's" are right now? Since ya boys finished this up far quicker then I'd expected." The duo could see a spark in her eyes as she said that.

Grinning like idiot's they replied in synch.

""Let's do it!""

.

* * *

.

 **A/N**

 **Well, that was a thing.**

 **I don't quite know what to say about this chapter.**

 **The Nightwalker was something I actually had a nightmare about when I was a kid, minus the Grimm mask. I still have that dream about it sometimes chasing me through a thick forest and I can't escape...**

 **Jaune's twin sister Macha, pronounced Ma-Ha, is a name I got from a game called .hack/GU. The game doesn't have any influence on the story except for why Macha uses only a sword and likes the color purple. Also turns out that when you search "Macha" on the internet the first few pages of options you see are all about a goddess of horses/twins/war in Irish lore.**

 **That I found pretty cool.**

 **Genesis is kind of like a male Ruby, except even crazier. He's about a year older then Jaune, Cardin, and Macha so he's like the big brother. I'm going to do a flashback for Cardin and Genesis next chapter.**

 **I also tried to flesh out Koko a bit more. Make her a bit more real feeling, so I put in some more personality to the crazy eye-patch wearing faunus.**

 **And I MIGHT touch on some of Jaune and Cardin's adventures with "Peter" later on.**

 **(I'm pretty sure you all know who that is.)**

 _ **Now for the thing your probably interested in:**_

 **Leo's past reveal was triggered by the fight that happened infront of him. I know it's depressing like all other OC's, but lets face the facts. People always have a shitty moment in life and that's far more interesting then talking about their favorite food or what color they like.**

 **And those people who have something messed up happen to them or are nuts in some way are far more interesting then the perfect citizen without a care in the world.**

 _ **This next topic is just random:**_

 **Cardin's mace is named, "Mea Culpa" and has the meaning of, "through my own fault". His mace is a familiy heirloom like Jaune's Crocea Mors.**

 **They haven't revealed it's name (if it has one) or it's background (like if he made it) so I just kind of did my own thing with it.**

 **Well that's it from me.**

 **Thanks for reading! Laters!**


	4. BEAR-handed

Arc: Introduction

Chapter 4: BEAR-handed!

 **A/N:**

 **The promised day has come! I have received a review finally!**

 **And yes Harutora75, it is a reference to KHR. I like referencing good shows, what else can I say?**

 **This is the second to final chapter of introduction. I'm going to skip the bulk of explanation this time and just get to the fun bits. Because that's mostly why the chapters were sooooo long.**

 **The start of the chapter is going to be with both of them, but from the middle onwards it's going to be Cardin's point of veiw. Jaune's will be next chapter and then I'm nearly going to kill them(again). After all that's done we can finally get on with this story to Beacon.**

 **So thats enough out of me! Let's get this show on the road!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the things I reference, they belong to their respective owners.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

.

* * *

.

 _"Your name is now Gold, your fur is a golden blonde like my family crest after all."_ \- Cardin Winchester

.

Our knightly duo are sitting around the destroyed field lazily with their ghostly friend Leo. Koko had left with Asru after she swore them both into the Kilika tribe. Koko said they had to get some things back at her cottage that are needed for their Metal Heads. What those things they need are, the knight duo have no idea. All they know is that they will finally get some answers to a few of the question's they've had for the last seven years.

"I wonder what that little leather book of her's really is..." Jaune was lying on his back and looking up at the sky. The blonde was watching the clouds float across the clear blue atmosphere with a smile.

"I'm more curious about Asru." Cardin was laying down as well, but with a smirk as he glared at any woodland creature that got to close.

"She said that Asru was something called a 'Metal Head' and it was at one time a Grimm." The barbarian grunted as he stared and smiled at a little white bunny rabbit. The bunny hopped over to him and he petted it with a satisfied smile.

 _'I will never understand how his head works... Why does he even like bunny rabbit's, but hate's every other animal?"_ Jaune looked at his rabbit loving friend with a deadpan.

"Well the book is called a 'Voice', and it contain's all of the Calls the spirits have ever taught her." Said the shirtless and shoeless ghost as he sat on one of the jutting rocks near the duo.

The knights immediately sat up and stared at the apparition. Leo didn't seem to notice though as he kept looking up at the sky with a thoughtful expression.

"Asru, Koko's Metal Head, contain's a piece of her heart and soul. That's why they are connected, because Asru has a part of her very being. The ritual to get one is pretty simple to though it is permanent." The brown haired ghost explained as he then looked at the duo with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Though I'm more excited about you guys finding out what kind of elemental spirits your both more in tune with. Because Calls are the main form of attack for Heart of Will and without the spirit's they're useless words." The ghostly lion's tail swished back and forth behind him as he looked at the knight with stars in his eyes.

"And look like really bad poetry." The wolf chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"You're not wrong Little Wolf." Leo laughed with him.

"What the hell does any of that even mean Casper?" The cardinal asked with a scowl.

"Wait, you didn't know what a Metal Head was till today right? How do you know that then?" The blonde detective questioned with a thoughtful expression.

 _'He really is a detective to some extent, was he like this even before he got his Heart of Will or is this a defense mechanism because he's so thick?'_ Cardin wondered at his friends deduction skills that always seemed to point out the little things that are important.

Except when it comes to little things about the Little Wolf himself.

"Well uh, I might have remembered a few things about myself during your fight." Leo looked down at the ground. The lion fuanus looked so distraught about whatever he had remembered. It made the duo feel really uncomfortable.

""Want to talk about it?"" The knights asked in synch and then looked at each other.

 _'How many times are we going to do that?'_ Thought the swordsmen while looking at his partner with a sigh.

 _'Yup, we should defiantly train on how to use telepathy.'_ Thought the mace user as he rolled his eyes and looked back at the depressed lion.

"Yeah, I think I will tell you about it. I already told Koko sort of." Leo had a sad smile and that really worried the duo.

.

* * *

 _ **A few depressing minutes later...**_

.

"Wow... So you were a soldier in a war?" Jaune asked Leo worriedly.

"Yup."

"And you fought against people most of the time and not Grimm?" Cardin asked with a frown that matched Leo's.

"Yup..."

"But why were you fighting in the first place?" The blonde knight wondered aloud.

"I don't really remember, all I remember is fighting and blood. The thundering of steel meeting steel as well as the tearing of flesh is still ringing in my ears. Along with the screams of pain..." Leo said softly.

 _'And I thought my thoughts were morbid and depressing. We should keep him distracted and far away from that part of his head. It's defiantly not good for our friendly ghost."_ Jaune thought as he looked at the cardinal who nodded his head in understanding.

"Anyways, tell us more about those second names. Why did you have another name to use when fighting in that war?" The Little Wolf scratched his head trying to come up with an answer but not finding one.

"In the tribes carnivores have three names," Leo held up three fingers and counted them off, "a given name, nickname, and an honored name." Leo tried to look happy while he explained. The loveable duo weren't buying it one bit, but they didn't say anything.

"Your given name is what everyone can call you. Your nickname is what your kinsmen call you. And you get an honored name after completing a special task or something for your village, so not everyone has an honored name." Leo explained.

"So this is basically like a title? The Knight's of Vale have titles, my mother is called Axe of War after all." The Little Cardinal chuckled.

Leo smiled a bit more, "Yeah it's kind of like that."

 _'I wonder what Leo's honored name is.'_

"Whats your honored name Leo?" Cardin asked what the knight JUST thought while giving the blonde a smug grin. Jaune just sighed at him while Cardin chuckled.

"Black Fang's my honored name." Leo puffed his chest out proudly with a big grin.

"My honored name is Brown Bear, but that's _Chief_ Brown Bear to ya idiots. Ya both are sworn into the tribe now and all." The eye-patched gun sliger said as her and Asru walked over to them.

Sir Sarcastic rolled his eyes, _'Brown Bear? I could have sworn it was Pumpkin Pete's because you have an eye-patch like the cartoon character from the commercials.'_

Jaune was having very different thought's compared to his friend...

 _'Oh Dust Asru looks pissed off at me!'_ The knight paled as he watched the silver plated war-bear stalk over.

The grizzly bear author had a small black box in her hands with gold trimming on the front of it. The brown war-bear was glaring daggers at Jaune and had a small and bulky looking brown bag in it's mouth. The duo looked at their Master cautiously as she approached them with a big smile.

"What?" The brown bear asked cheerily but her little brothers/students didn't say a word.

"Ya both look like I just pointed a gun at ya! What's the matter? Gettin' cold feet?" Koko teased.

"N-no, that's not it. I-it's uh..." The struggling blonde quickly looked at his friend's for back up, but Leo just shrugged.

Thankfully Cardin was there for him in this desperate time of need.

Rigth?

"You're smiling like a mad women and it's making us feel really uncomfortable." Said the blunt as all Grimm mace wielder.

 _'Thanks Little Cardinal, you doomed us to her rath with your blunt stupidity.'_ The Little Wolf glared at the barbarian cardinal.

"Great! I was starten' to worry that I didn' strike fear in ya idiots anymore." Koko laughed at them heartily while Asru grunted to get her attention.

 _'Oh Dust, she is in a really good mood.'_ Jaune thought with even more fear, _'She's probably going to make us do something really dangerous and crazy.'_

Now the shaken wolf was on the guard for any possible threats and doing everything in his power to keep his Crest Sight from activating. If she knew he was expecting something she would plan accordingly. If that happened he would have no way of defending against whatever it is.

 _'This will be funny to watch.'_ Cardin sneared as he watched his troublesome friend prepare his heart for whatever their nutty Master had planed. The burnt orange knight knows for a fact that when Jaune expects danger he always scares himself.

"Oh come on Asru, yer gonna 'ave to get along with 'em! Now go make up with Little Wolf." Koko rolled her eye at the miffed ex-Grimm stalked over to them and stopped in front of the blonde bullet that hit her in the gut.

"Um? S-sorry?" Jaune reached out skittishly towards Asru and she growled menacingly.

"AH!" Quck as a flash, the doofus jumped into Cardin's arms who only looked at him with an amused smirk.

"Really?"

"She scared me!" Jaune looked at his friend with distress.

The cardinal rolled his eyes mischievously, "Oh calm down Jauney Doo."

"I don't think I can..." The scardy wolf replied while shacking.

Prying the hopeless knights fingers from around his neck, Cardin unceremoniously dropped his best friend right on the hard ground.

 **Thump!**

"Hey!" The scared blonde wolf glared up at the burnt orange hot-head.

"What?" Said hot-head looked down at his friend while he took the bag out of Asru's mouth. The war-bear was laughing at Jaune's expense along with Leo.

"Are ya'll done bein' idiot's now?" Koko chuckled.

"What are these for?" Cardin asked as he pulled out a silver bracelet with a circular indention in it. Jaune picked himself up off the ground and slowly moved towards his friend who was investigating the bags contents. It was filled with all kinds of accessories and armor bits made of silver.

"Whoa this is pretty cool Master." The wolf said as he inspected a silver ring and Koko smiled proudly.

"These are just some silver accesories that ya both can pick from. After ya pick one we'll put yer Heart Glass in it or if ya'd like I could personalize them a bit more for ya at my forge." Koko said while holding up her bear head necklace.

"What's 'heart glass'?" Jaune asked while cardin pulled out a simple silver plate with a leather strap on it.

"That's what's inside this box." Koko said with a smirk as she took the bag back from Cardin.

"Anyways, open the box Little Cardinal." Koko said as she gave the black box with the gold trimm on it to the curious cardinal.

"Hm?" Cardin peered inside to find...

"Marbles?" Jaune said as Cardin pulled one out and looked at it with narrowed eyes and a pursed lip.

.

* * *

 _ **A long explanation later...**_

.

"Okay so let me get this straight..." The Little Wolf said with frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"These marbles are called Heart Glass and you want us to put our flame inside of it so we can bind ourselves to a Grimm making them our permanent ally for the rest of our lives?"

"Yup." Their Master said while popping the 'p'.

"Then you want us to get on the launch pads and bind the first Grimm we make eye contact with as per the tradition of the Kilika Tribe?"

"Pretty much."

"And to capture them we have to literally beat them into submission?"

"That's the plan." She said while lighting up one of her fake cigarette's.

"Don't forget the part where she wants you to do it unarmed and since you'll be fighitng bare handed you need to follow Koko's rule number six!" The happy-go-lucky lion said to the distressed blonde who seemed to be becoming more and more done with this Thursday by the second.

Hiding his head in his hands the wolf groaned, "I knew that someday, probably a Thursday, I would meet my end. But I didn't want it to be so soon..."

"Your not going to die, get hurt badly yeah, but I doubt you'll die." Cardin rolled his eyes and patted his friends shoulder. Then he walked over to Koko and the black box that he'd given back to her for the explanation.

Taking a marble out the barbarian inspected it. The glass was about the size of his thumbnail and was completely see through. Quickly following after his larger friend, the other knight took a Heart Glass out of the box for himself.

"So I do it like this?" The burnt orange knight asked as he flowed his flames into the little marble held between his thumb and finger. Jaune followed suite and flowed his own flames into his with Leo hovering over him excitedly.

 _'It feels weird, like this little piece of glass is me.'_ The swordsmen thought while the little glass ball started changing colors from his orange flame to white.

"Yup, that's perfect ya both got it nice and stable. I was kinda worried ya both would put to much flames in them and they'd break." Koko stated while inspecting each of their Heart Glass with a critical eye.

"Why's it red?" The Little Cardinal looked at his Master with a questioning gaze. As soon as he stopped putting flames inside of the little ball it turned crimson colored.

 _'It looks freakin cool even though just looking at it makes me feel a little empty inside.'_ Cardin thought as he looked at the wolf's that had turned white.

"That's the color of both of yer Aura's." Koko chuckled.

"Wait, but I thought we were only putting flames in these things? How did they turn the color of our Aura if we don't even have them unlocked?" The blonde detective questioned.

Sighing Koko decided to answer the obviously stupid question, "Yer heart and soul are connected. If ya put one of those into somethin', ya always get a little bit of the other. So it's mostly yer hearts in the Heart Glass, but a little of yer Aura leaked in and defined the color because it's more dense."

Leo smoothed his brown hair out of his eyes and pouted, "Test their alignment already Koko! I want to know what elemental spirits they work with best!" He begged the bear faunus.

Koko rolled her eyes, "First Metal Heads, I'll teach them Calls tomorrow. That magic shit is confusing as all Grimm."

Jaune's eyes widened, _'Oh Dust...'_

"Hey Jaune."

The blonde slowly turned his head to look at a horrific sight. The burnt orange comedian had a full blown not-scary smile on that was nearly ear to ear.

That can only mean one thing...

"Guess you could say that I CALLed it! Haha!" The cardinal crossed his arms and looked rather smug.

 **Slap!**

"Ugh..." Koko groaned while dragging her hand down her face.

"Really?" Jaune deadpanned.

"I don't know guys, that one was pretty funny~!" Leo sniggered.

"Alright, now that I 'ave officailly given up on the Little Cardinal's humor. Lets move on to launching ya both off into the forest so ya idiots can get yer damn Metal Heads." Koko groaned while shacking her head in disbelief for her students atrocious humor.

 _'Oh yeah, almost forgot that I have a first class ticket on the carzy-for-even-doing-it airlines.'_ Jaune sighed while hanging his head.

"You'll live." Cardin smirked at his friend and started taking off his armor.

 _'Probably.'_ The cardinal decided not to share that thought with his pal.

"Right. Thanks." Jaune rolled his eyes and took off his own armor.

"Do we really have to do rule number six?" Questioned the now amor-less blonde knight.

"What? Afraid to show some skin tooth-pick?" Cardin jeered at his smaller friend while taking off his black button-up shirt.

"I just don't get the point behind, _'Real men don't fist fight with their shirts on.'_ and how that even counts as a rule for life to Master." Jaune quoted the author's rule number six.

"Just because I'm a women Little Wolf don't mean I can't take my shirt off and fight like a real man should." Koko pouted.

"But your not a MAN! At least change it from 'real men' to something like 'real warriors'!" Jaune tried to get her to see reason for once.

Today is not his day, it's Thursday.

"But that isn't nearly as catchy or manly sounding." The bear faunus waved that idea away, "Not only that but it sounds way to serious."

"I give up," The helpless boy sighed, "Just so you know, if I die because I didn't have my armor on I blame you and your crazy life rule's. I've never been launched without my armor and weapon before and never planed to."

"Don't worry Little Wolf," Koko put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "if you DO die you'll know what it's like to be Leo." The helpful author hiked a thumb at the apparition who pouted.

"You say that like being a restless spirit is a bad thing!"

"It is a bad thing Leo!" The distressed blonde and bear yelled.

 _'Does Casper even CARE he's dead?'_ Cardin thought while looking at the see through lion. Turning to his distressed idiot, Cardin gave him a rough pat on the back.

 **Smack!**

"Get over it sunshine, you'll live. You have the tenacity of a cockroach remember?" Smirked the barbarian knight while crossing his arms infront of his bare chest.

Giving his friend's a resigned sigh, Jaune took off his hoodie and black t-shirt, "Not to mention I'm a freaking moron. I have to be an idiot to even TRY half the things Master has made us do." He pouted off to the side while crossing his own arms.

"Oh shut it, at least that crazy shit I made ya do gave ya some badass lookin' scars." Koko scoffed at her blonde student who kept pouting.

"Chicks dig scars~!" Koko sang while waggling her eye brows at the hopeless romantic who immediately perked up.

"Really?" Jaune looked at Koko with a big smile and she nodded with a grin.

The mace-less mace wielder sighed and rolled his eyes, _'I'll never understand his intrest in romance. Maybe it's because he has seven sisters and would make the perfect house husband.'_

Looking over his own arms he saw a few thin and small scars. There weren't many, but they were still pretty noticeable on his pale skin. Jaune was slightly tan compared to him though, but his small scars were also noticeable.

She was right that it gave them a wild and badass look.

"Let's get this show on the road boys!" Koko yelled and walked over to the two metal launch pads in the center of the clearing.

They were built into a man made stone slab and had three metal levers next to them. One lever preps the pads for launch and the other two turn's them in different directions. These things have only been here for about three years but were already worn with use.

Koko had installed them after Cardin had made an off-hand comment about rather being launched into the forest instead of being knocked out and dumped at random by the crazy author.

And that is how they came to be.

Following after the brown haired women as she limped slightly towards the launch pads they couldn't help but smile a little bit. The first time they did it, it was freaking terrifying. Every time after though...

It was waaaaay to much fun.

They came to love their launch pads so much that they scratched their names on them. As well as their nicknames and symbols. These launch pads are where the majority of their adventures these last three years started. They held a lot of history to the boys and they were going to miss them.

Now standing on their scuffed up launch pads, Jaune on the right and Cardin on the left. They looked up at the tree tops with anticipation while absentmindedly gripping tighter on the Heart Glass clutched in their hands.

"Now remember, ya 'ave to defeat the FIRST Grimm ya make eye contact with. After beatin' it into submission yer gonna 'ave to flow yer flame into it and press the Heart Glass into somewhere on it's body. The Heart Glass will sink into them and make the connection between ya both. When that's finished they will change physically in a pretty dramatic way, but don't freak out." Koko reminded them as she leaned on her good leg next to the launch lever.

Nodding, they thought about what they are about to do as the breeze ran over their bare skin. Jaune was trying to not think of how he might die and focus on how to actually fight a Grimm bare handed. Cardin was thinking about the best way to end the fight quickly and in the coolest way possible.

 _'Should I go with kick boxing? It seem's to work well on Cardin and he's twice my size, plus he's as vicious as a Grimm.'_ Was the slightly worried wolf's thoughts.

 _'Maybe I can just give it a good left hook to the face with a nice catch phrase? Nah to easy, I'll go with an Atlesian Suplex.'_ Were the fight happy cardinals thoughts.

"Peace and no sorrow." Leo said with a thumbs up to the duo.

Jaune chuckled nervously, "Are you saying goodbye or telling us we'll be okay?"

"Both." Leo shrugged with a big smile.

Cardin rolled his eyes with a smirk, "Thanks Casper."

The trigger happy author got a dangerous glint in her eyes and looked at her students. Quickly noticing their Master's pointed stare, Cardin gave her his own evil smirk and Jaune gulped and tried his best not to look like he's scared.

You can't fool anyone with Heart of Wills enhanced perception though.

"Ya got this, Little Wolf." Koko's face softened at the blonde and he gave her a relieved smile.

 _'She really is like a big sister in everyway to us.'_

"Y-yeah." He nodded to her and then the Little Cardinal bumped his shoulder. He had that rare not scary smile.

"Let's do this buddy." Cardin held his fist out to his pal.

Giving him a slightly less nervous smile, the wolf gave his pal a fist bump, "Okay, but just so you know. My Will really is on my cot."

Cardin chuckled, "Seriously?"

 _'I should get him a councilor or something, maybe Peter will do it.'_ Just thinking of Peter giving Jaune advice made him laugh.

Peter's just as nuts as them after all.

"Ready?" Koko asked while grabbing the lever.

Quickly getting into landing strategy mode, they got into their usual stances. Hands out, knees bent, feet apart, and staying as stable as possible. The last thing they need is to get tossed like a rag doll when their flying through the air.

""Ready!""

 **clink!**

""No..."" They started as Koko pulled the lever and the gears turned. The gears clinked and whirled loudly as they waited. They know exactly when they'd get launched so they did the only thing you could do in a situation like this.

Come up with a catchphrase just for it.

 **whhrrrrr-Chuck!**

""FUTURE!"" They screamed out as they were launched into the air over the multi-colored trees of the King's Forest.

Cardin and Jaune were angled slightly from each other and were quickly getting distance between them as they sailed across the sky. It was nearing six o'clock from what they could tell so they only had about an hour to find and beat a Grimm before it gets to dark.

But first they have to land without dieing.

 _'Hope Jaune doesn't smack his face into a tree or something, that would really suck.'_ Chuckled the barbarian as he flew through the air.

.

* * *

 _ **Cardin's "landing"...**_

.

After sailing through the sky and starting his descent downwards the burnt orange hot head executed the landing strategy that he always used. That strategy was Boosting into his feet and just plowing through branches to decrease momentum. He's done it before a hundred times no problem!

With his mace and armor which he didn't have with him.

As well as a shirt, can't forget that his Masters nutty rule's on life made him come out here shirtless. The only reason he still had his steal boots is because you can't remove the plates.

So after executing the first half the Little Cardinal realized that he would need to come up with a new way to actually LAND.

With no other choice he went with Jaune's fall back plan that never seems to fail him on Thursday's...

 _'Don't break a leg! Don't break a leg! Don't break a leg!'_

Chant in his head and pray to Dust he doesn't break something important, like his legs.

 **Crack!**

"Oof!"

 **Thunk!**

"Argh!"

 **Snap!**

"Uuggh..."

Now hanging upside down from a tree branch he'd managed to catch with his foot barely. The not-so-lucky-but-also-not-dead cardinal looked straight down and found himself to be quite a distance off the ground. Sighing and counting his lucky stars he didn't fall ALL the way down the suspended knight decided to try and figure out how he's getting down. Upon further inspection of the earth below him, he saw that he's hanging over a steeply slanted hill.

That went down quite a ways with rocks all over it and into a deep looking river.

If he messed up THIS landing he'd be totally screwed.

 **Crack!**

His head shot up to look at the now snapping branch suspending him from the ground with wide eyes.

 _'No!'_

 **Crrrrrack!**

 _'No! No! No!'_

 **SNAP!**

"AAAAAH!"

 **THUD!**

Falling straight down the cardinal let his instincts take over and he threw his body around. Now spinning in midair the frantic mace user flowed more flames into his hands and feet in anticipation for the long roll down. When he hit the ground, the world was already a blur, and Cardin didn't know up from down as he continued his journey he wished would just stop.

 **Splash!**

Finally the world stopped spinning as he landed in the river. It was a waist deep river and it was very calm compared to how he thought it was. To bad the knight was still adjusting to his little roll down hill. Seeing stars the disorientated barbarian was barely able to keep his head above water.

So instead of struggling to get his barings the boy decided to just float on his back till the world became stable to him again. As he floated the blood from all the now opened scars and his new scratches seeped into the river making them sting. He could also feel his sore muscles ache in his arms and legs from all the pressure he's put them through the last couple hours.

Using his flames he closed the open wounds quickly without much of an issue and continued to use the flames to keep him warm as he floated down river slowly. He couldn't do anything about how sore he was, only grit his teeth and bare it. That's something he does a lot when he train's with his Master and Jaune.

After a few minutes the shirtless idiot was finally able to focus and move without causing his sore muscles to much pain. After pulling himself out of the river and onto the bank with some difficulty, he decided to rest for a bit. It wouldn't do him any good to run around without a plan or energy.

 _'If this is karma for teasing Jaune and scaring those little animals then I'd hate to see what would happen if I really fuck up.'_ Sighed the sarcastic and very tired knight.

Laying on his back and watching the clouds again he started to think about himself. He knows his existence is pretty miniscule in this big world full of monsters of death and destruction, but he couldn't help but think about who he is and what he wants. There's something him and the Little Wolf are always told by their Master.

"You can't wield a weapon if you can't see yourself." He whispered aloud as he pulled the red Heart Glass from his pocket and held it up to the sky.

He still doesn't know what she means exactly by it, but he has an idea about it. Like you have to know yourself before you can wield a weapon to it's fullest potential. Not like in a spiritual sense or any of that bull. More like a physical and psychological way.

You have to know your body and your mindset in battle in other words.

He could figure out that his mentality is that of a foolhardy idiot that prefers to deal damage then take it so he can end fights quickly. That was really simple for him, so he added heavy armor to his equipment to supplement for his weak defenses. That way he can focus on attacking and just throw caution to the wind like he always does.

And thanks to the hand-to-hand combat training their Master gave them, they know their bodies pretty well. They understand their limits and can guage how injuried they are while fighting. Since they have Crest Sight active whenever they spar they can even see the subtle twitches of muscles thanks to rule number six. Because they know what to look for, they can even read people without Crest Sight.

That has saved their hides a lot when dealing with punks on the street.

Most of what they know from their hand-to-hand combat training is that instinct is key to movement. Constantly thinking of where to move will slow you down, so Jaune and him form a basic plan before hand whenever they fight. They have a process of thinking about what they'd do before they even do it, and if need be adjust their plans. Being flexible and knowing your exits is the basics of survival.

What does this have to do with who he is and what he wants? Well the answer is simple, he loves to fight and do things others would never consider even trying. He's a thrill seeker in many ways and that's all he wants out of life, to do what no one else would.

Cardin would seek out the strong and challenge them without second thought. Going on adventures and getting into trouble is like second nature to him. It's a part of him he can't get rid of and doesn't ever want to.

If you were to ask Cardin Winchester why he loved fighting, he'd only say one thing:

"It's what I was born to do and what I want to do."

To an extent he's right. He was born into a family of warriors that fight and defend the Kingdom of Vale from all possible threats. His father and mother are knights, his grandparents on both sides of his family are knights, his extended family are knights or Hunters, hell at this point he's more then sure his own kids will be warriors of some kind.

It's just in his blood to be a warrior and fight.

Though his family doesn't have the best histroy when it comes to dealing with people, especially faunus. But after Cardin befriended the faunus women Koko when he was ten years old they started to accept faunus. The Winchesters changed for the better over the last seven years of the youngest son's association with Koko of Kilika and Jaune Arc. Koko has proven to possess the one thing Winchesters hold higher then tradition:

True power in the face of danger and great difficulty.

Koko has earned the respect of the Winchesters and proven years of superstition about faunus being weak animals wrong. Carson Winchester, head of the Winchester family, had started to treat the faunus villages that are under his knight divisions protection differently.

Most of those villages inhabitants worked in the Dust mines that Carson owned, and after meeting Koko he improved the conditions for the faunus workers and they came to respect his strength. Even if he gets mad at them for being weak and complain a lot about things he can't take care of for them.

Cardin and his elder brother Genesis take after their father in many ways. They have his ever present natural scowl when he's not sneering at the fools below him. They have his bloodthristy nature to seek out the powerful and test their metal.

They also have his unsavory hatred for weak things; like tiny animals, people who hide when things get bad, people that runaway and don't take responsibility for their actions, and most of all people who think that just because they are in a group they are strong.

People like the White Fang in other words.

"What do I even want to do in life besides fight and go on adventures? Is that even a life choice?" Cardin asked the little crimson colored marble in his hands.

 **Growl**

Tearing his gaze from the Heart Glass he's been staring at he sighed, "No use thinking about it right now."

The fight happy barbarian started to grin menacingly and slowly rose off the ground and shoved the red glass ball into his pocket. The shirtless knight rolled his aching shoulders and felt the pain from his tumble down hill till there, but he'd have to grit his teeth or die.

Now he turned his eyes to the bushes near the river and saw the red glow. Taking his boxing stance, Cardin extended a hand to the bush and beckoned it's occupant out.

 _'Let's see what kind of Grimm I got here to tame, is it a Beowolf? I hope it is, or maybe something like a boarbatusk that might be harder though...'_ He was getting giddy even though he's sore as hell.

 _'I've always wanted to Atleasian Suplex a Grimm nows my-'_

 **ROAR!**

Just like that, the burnt orange knights hopes were dashed. It was a young Ursa that came out of the bush instead of a smaller and lighter Grimm. The ursa didn't even have spikes on it's back it was that young. The bone armor on it's body was limited to only it's face mask.

Groaning at how he wasn't going to fullfill his wish this time around he rolled his shoulders again and felt the burn of his muscles. Cracking his nuckles and neck, the shirtless barbarian looked at his opponent with a menacing scowl. The golden wing representing his Crest Sight appeared on his right eye and he got to thinking.

 _'I'm not against having a Ursa as my partner for the rest of my life, it should be fun with all the bear puns I can make.'_ The Little Cardinal's fearal grin grew.

 _'Might as well do what I do best.'_

"Soooo," he drawled out with a smirk, "come here often?"

The Grimm grunted and quickly charged at him with a swipe aimed at his head. Jumping backwards a little, Cardin dug his foot in the ground and sent a Boosted punch to the Grimm's open side. Barely even making the Ursa flinch.

"Well that could have been better." Cardin said aloud as he backed off from the angry bear of death. He had to shake out his hand because of the pain from it's thick hide.

"Mind telling me your weakness or am I just going to have to keep punching till I find it?" Cardin asked as the Ursa sent a flurry of swipes at the pesky human that was mocking it.

"What's the matter?" The burnt orange boxer said while weaving between the Ursa's clunky attacks, "You look like your having a hard time."

Quckly moving back and getting some distance again the mace user held his arms out wide, "Am I that un-BEAR-able when I'm BEAR-handed?"

 **GRRRR!**

"Yesh! I doubt we could work together if you don't like my puns." Cardin rolled his eyes and smirked.

 _'I wonder if this is how my brother feels like when we spar...'_

.

* * *

 _ **At the Winchester Castle last year...**_

.

 _"Come on my cute little cardinal! I'm not even sweating~!" My brother teased as I kept trying to hit him with my mace._

 _I had asked my elder brother Genesis to spar with me. Just a simple spar since he became a squire to the Knights of Vale this spring after he turned 17. After becoming a squire he was gone as much as father from home after all. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel lonely without him._

 _This was just a practice fight between brothers. You know, a good natured fight to help each other improve. A battle that has absolutely no ill intents from either of us._

 _"STAND STILL SO I CAN KILL YOU!"_

 _What? I'm Sir Sarcastic knighted by Koko the Queen of Badassery. You really think I'd start off my flashback differently?_

 _Anyways, Genesis is my older brother. He has brown hair and forest green eyes like our father. I got my mothers hair burnt orange hair and indigo eyes though and I actually like them better, makes me a little less menacing. Though my brother and me both got our fathers natural scowl._

 _I really hate it._

 _That scowl seems to be what scares everybody away from me and I never had friends as a kid. Until I met Jaune that is, but lets get back to the topic of my brother._

 _"What?" Genesis ducked under my swing AGAIN, "You mad bro?" He teased with a smirk. My Crest Sight was already activated before we started, but it doesn't make my brother any less annoying._

 _Deadpanning I replied with an explosive swing, "If I was mad," I spun in a circle with the momentum and slamed my mace down hard into the floor, "I would be FAR more calm!"_

 _"Oh yeah, I forgot that depending on the level of fear or anger," Genesis said with wonder as he bobbed and weaved between my swings, "your crest thingy calms you more."_

 _ **Clang!**_

 _"I doubt you forgot about that." I grunted swinging at him again and the shaft of his war hammer met the shaft of my own weapon._

 _"What do you take me for?" Genesis teased while pushing into me with his war hammer. He was right up in my face now and didn't even blink with his next words._

 _"A mad genius that will someday conquer the world?" He sneered._

 _"Yes." I said simply before IMTing away from him._

 _My brother had a thinner frame then me, but he was still leagues stronger then me even without using his Aura. Big brother usually wore light armor like Jaune, except his armor was standared steel and covered the majority of his left side since he's left handed. Normally he uses a square shield and lance combo, but sometimes he likes to use his other weapons he's collected over the years._

 _Right now he's using a war hammer from his collection, my brother has an obsession with the classics. Sure he thinks the weapon's huntsmen use nowadays are cool, but it's thanks to the classics that crazy weapon's like that even exist. Huntsmen may have 'improved' upon their weapons, but in essence they all stem from the classics._

 _He never shuts up about that..._

 _My brother just laughed, "You and me both know I'd already have taken over the world if that was the case."_

 _Diving back into our fray, steel met steel again._

 _ **Clang! Clang!**_

 _"So, why did you want to spar with me again?" I saw the mischief in his eyes. Another thing we got from our father was his love for making chaos._

 _My brother is way better then both father and me at causing chaos though._

 _"Where's my left socks!"_

 _..._

 _I know what your thinking, but not even I have the answer to that question._

.

* * *

 _ **End of Flashback...**_

.

"Whoa!" Yelled the reminiscing idiot as the very angry bear swung at his head again.

 _'Yup, just reminisce about your past in a life or death battle. That is totally what you should do Cardin.'_ The knight rolled his eyes at his own sarcasm biting him.

 **ROAR!**

"I heard you the first time!" The barbarian yelled back and charged a large Boost into his hand's.

It hurt to tighten his fists because they got quite the beating from hitting the Grimms tough muscles. That didn't stop him though, it's fight or die. And there ain't no way in hell Cardin Winchester was going to die here.

Taking his stance, hands burning brightly, again he continued to dodge the hulking bear of darkness. When he could, the knight struck at it's sides and arms. The damage was adding up but it was taking to long.

It was starting to get hard for the burnt orange boxer to throw proper punches. He was still a little shaken from his roll down hill and it was starting to get dark out. He needed to finish this fast.

The whole time he was racking his brain, _'What are these things damn weaknesses again?'_

Cardin would be the first to admit that he isn't the brightest when it comes to most kinds of studying. The barbarian knows all of that pretty well, and accepts that it's something he MIGHT need to work on. But at least he's able to read the mood of a room unlike Jaune.

And Jaune is more dense then a brick wall lined with 10 inches of cement and plexy glass.

Memory isn't Cardin's biggest thing either, if he likes it he will remember it. Hell he could recite a chapter from one of his favorite books almost perfectly! But if it bores him to no end then he'll more then likely forget it.

 _'Peter! What was that story about him and the Ursa?!'_

Cardin smirked as he remembered the only teacher that could get him to actually REMEMBER something most people made boring. Because Peter's story's were just so freaking cool! Who else in the world can say they've used a LIVE beowolf to beat up an Alpha beowolf? Or hunted down a legendary monster called the Krackin in the middle of the worlds ocean!

Thinking hard about Peter's many Ursa stories that the knight duo have learned by heart over the years, Cardin came to a conclusion.

 _'Okay nose, groin, and the ears are all super sensitive. I don't have anything to make loud noises to stun it's hearing like Peter said was the best thing to do. But the side of the head where the ears are at isn't covered much by the mask...'_

The barbarian jumped a little ways back from a downwards swing. Now that the Ursa was hunched over, Cardin gave it a swift kick to the nose. The Ursa's Grimm mask only cover's the top half of it's face so it's nose is vulnerable luckily. The Grimm howled in pain and fell on all fours.

"Boot to the head!" Cardin yelled and sent a Boosted kick to the left side of the Grimm's head right at the unprotected ear.

 **Whack! Crack!**

 **THUD!**

Thanks to his steel plated boots he was able to not only do some major damage to the Grimm, but even crack it's bone mask and knock it out.

"Ugh, why didn't I do that from the start if it was THAT easy." The knight rolled his eyes as he inspected his handy work.

While shacking his now aching foot.

 _'Damn thing must have a thicker skull then Jaune AND me.'_ Remembering his best friend he sighed.

"I gotta be nicer to Jaune and small animals, that way karma doesn't bite me in the ass so hard." He thought while looking off to the side and seeing a squirrel.

 **Grrrr.**

Terrified, the little animal ran from the cardinal as fast as it's little feet would take it.

"I'll start tomorrow." The barbarian smirked.

.

* * *

 _ **Three minutes later...**_

.

After he was completely sure that the Grimm was down for the count, Cardin decided to do what his Master told him. Since the Grimm was flat on it's face he walked over to one of it's limp paws. Inspecting the left one he thought that would be a good place to put the Heart Glass.

Pulling out the small red marble like glass and holding it infront of his face. He saw the setting sun gleam of it's surface.

 _'It feels like I'm missing a piece of myself.'_

Sighing and scratching his head the cardinal kneeled next to the Grimm. Taking the glass ball and pressing it into the beasts left paw and placing his other hand on the Grimm's body. He pushed his flames inside of the Grimm and the Heart Glass started to sink into the Ursa's fur.

 _'This thing feels so... Empty inside.'_ The knight scowled while the Grimm's body lit up with his slowly spreading flames.

"Whoa!" Cardin jumped back from the Grimm.

"I know she said it would be flashy, but this is nuts!" He exclaimed in awe.

There before him, his flames that had ignited the large bear turned crimson red like the Heart Glass. The fire burned while it spread further across it's body, the black color of the Grimm seemed to burn off into ashes from it's touch. The cardinal watched as the fur of the bear turned a golden blonde color similar to the color used for the Winchester's familly crest.

The flames continued spreading across the unconcious Grimm, the darkness burned away to ashes slowly in the glow of the setting sun. Rising high into the sky and disappearing as though it was never even a part of the beast it came from. The Grimm's claw's and the broken bone mask burned brightly with the crimson flames. What was left of the mask turned black and slowly cracked off the Ursa's face and dissipated like the rest of the black on the monster.

Squinting he watched as the claws and the crown of the Grimm's head glowed even brighter. Nearly blinding him but he couldn't tear his gaze from the sight. Where there was once white bone, it had turned into a pure silver. Crimson red scrawling's etched into the silver mask and over the right eye of the grimm was the shape of a wing in that very same crimson color.

As the light show died down the knight walked closer to the gold furred bear. Kneeling infront of it's face, Cardin put a hand on the silver mask.

"Gold and crimson huh? My favorite colors just like Master said." He stroked the mask a little and heard the creature breath softly unlike before.

Before it was more like evil breathing, if that's a thing.

"When she said it would take the image that would please us I wasn't expecting my favorite colors and Crest Sight symbol." He had a small smile now.

 _'So this guy is going to be my Metal Head partner huh? I feel like he's a part of me.'_

Taking a look at the left paw he saw that it had grown it's own silver plate and the same Heart Glass was right in the middle. The Heart Glass grew to the size of a golf ball. Crimson lines swirled around the steal plate as they cirlced the glass marble in the center. The Heart Glass shined a briliant red that seems to captivate his gaze, no longer did it make him feel a little empty to look at it.

He felt whole again, like what was missing is back. Yet it's not, that feeling was coming from the beast infront of him. Noticing that the bear was waking up he looked at the slowly opening eyes. They were indigo like his own eyes, another thing his Master said would happen.

"Morning sunshine." Smirked the mace user.

The Metal Head blinked it's eyes a little bit at the new face. Slowly, it stood up again on all fours and looked to be inspecting itself. Like it was trying to get used to it's body, it walked around a little and moved it's claws as though feeling for them.

 _'Is that susposed to happen?'_

"So I take it you don't want to kill me anymore?" The barbarian had no idea why he was asking, he just did.

As though remembering he was there, the Metal Head looked up from it's feet in surprise. Rearing up on it's hind legs it started to stalk over to Cardin. The worn out and very sore knight knew he should feel afraid right now but he doesn't. It took slower steps as it got closer to him, but Cardin waited and didn't move. Upon closer inspection the Metal Head was only a little bit bigger then him hight wise.

 _'I knew it was a young Ursa, but that's still pretty small.'_

Grunting at him the gold furred bear held out it's left paw to Cardin. Looking up at the bear questioningly he pointed at the paw. Nodding to Cardin, the barbarian took the hint and decided to just put his hand in it's paw.

It was the left paw of the bear and as soon as he touched it his Heart of Will ignited on his own hand. Looking satisfied the bear turned and got back on all fours and walked towards the river. The golden blonde fur of the bear was a stark contrast to the dark green grass making it stand out quite a bit.

Walking over to the bear, Cardin decided to sit down and watch the river. It was dyed red and orange by the setting sun and made him feel a little at ease. The golden furred bear was next to him as he sat down and propped himself on his elbows. His whole body was sore and he knew that he had probably sprained his wrists from the fight, if the bruises on his wrists are anything to go by.

"Gold."

The knight kept his eyes trained on the water and saw it reflect the bear as it looked over at it's master with a scowl.

 _'We even have the same freakin scowl?'_ Cardin chuckled and the bear just glared at him.

"Your name is now Gold, your fur is a golden blonde like my family crest after all." Cardin reasoned as he continued to watch the river.

It must have been satisfied because it just set it's head back down with a small grin from what Cardin could tell. This bear seemed like him but something was different, like it was him but not. Of course he's obviously not a bear like Gold, but he felt like something inside it is different.

"Come on." Cardin said while standing up with shakey legs. All that Heart of Will flame he was using had caused his body quite a bit of damage.

"We need to get back before it gets to dark and Master decides to come find us." Gold looked at him quizzically and Cardin just scratched the back of his head.

"I'll tell you all about the crazy gun touting bear faunus I call Master as we walk back." The shirtless knight said and Gold nodded.

" **Kyyyaaaaaaaaa!** "

" **Caaaaaaaaaaaw!** "

Immediately Gold and Cardin looked to the south towards the other end of the King's Forest. It's full of extremely dangerous and old Grimm, Grimm that Koko has taken to calling:

 _ **B.A.G.**_

What that means is there are **B** ig **A** ss **G** rimm. Sometimes Cardin wonders how his Master even comes up with these sorts of names. Almost everything is an acronym when it comes to combat. In fact, whenever Wise Owl visits they always talk about acronym's. Apparently part of the silver haired Huntsmens job is to come up with acronym's.

Cardin and his buddy Jaune still don't know what that job even is.

"Dammit Jaune!" Gold looked up at his extremely miffed master with a curious raised brow.

Cardin sighed, "My idiot friend got in trouble, lets go help him."

 _'Since I heard a Nevermore he's probably getting carried off to one of their nests in the southern cliffs.'_ Cardin rolled his eyes.

Gold nodded and the duo took off running towards the south end of the forest where the dark clouds are alive with a strong storm. Just getting near that part of the forest gave Cardin a bad feeling, like there was more then just B.A.G and dangerous cliffs...

Dangerous cliffs full of Nevermore nests to be precise...

 _'He really is super unlucky on Thrusdays.'_

.

* * *

 **Back with the wanna-be pirate and friendly ghost...**

.

"Koko, do you think they'll be okay?" Leo was sitting on one of the jutting rocks in the clearing. He was staring at Koko who hadn't taken her eyes off of the part of the sky she launched her little brothers. Her eyes were proud yet painful, which puzzled the lion.

After several moments of waiting for a response Leo became worried, "Koko?"

"It's almost time..." The bear faunus murmered without straying her gaze.

"Time for what?"

Koko finally tore her gaze from the treetops to the south and looked at the worried lion.

"For them to see the path they've chosen..." Koko turned her gaze back as she trailed off.

Leo floated over to her, "What do you mean?"

Koko chuckled lightly while pulling out her little leather book, "Ha ha... The path that only an idiot would take."

After flipping to the last page of the little book, she looked down at it with a sad smile.

"What's that doing in your Voice book? Isn't that only susposed to hold calls?" Leo pointed at the picture.

"Ya gotta keep yer loved ones close right? What better place to put them then my Voice book that always stay's close to my heart?" Koko said softly while looking down at the picture.

There was a girl, no older then 14 or 15, standing with a bunch of other people. Her skin was tanned like she had never spent a day out of the sun. The girl had short honey brown hair and chacolate colored eyes. Clutched in her hands was a pair of pistols and a rifle was slung over her back. She was wearing a simple brown longsleeved tunic, black pants with two crossed belts, and her feet had leather boots that looked extremely worn down.

Around her neck was a silver necklace with a bear head that has a brown circular gem on it's forehead.

Everyone in the picture was smiling brightly and looked like they could always find the good in the bad. There were people old and young in the photo. Humans and faunus were standing next to each other. Some of them had black skin and other's were extremely pale. They all had weapons strapped to their backs and scars littering whatever skin was exposed. Not a single person in the picture looked like they had seen a day without each other at their sides.

To the rigth of the girl in the middle of the photo was a human man with black hair and glasses holding her shoulder with a big goofy grin. The man's skin was pale and just under his arm was a book of some kind. On her left was a very tall women with a bright smile, a giant sword, and bear ears on her head. The women had tanned skin and looked like there was never a day she didn't smile. Standing behind the young girl was a young man who looked to be about 18 or 19 with a sword hooked on his belt. His face was covered in ash and he was wearing a smithing apron. His eyes were silver and his hair was honey brown like hers, but his was a little longer and tousled. He was hugging the short girl around the shoulders from behind and resting his chin on her head with a big toothy smile.

"Is that?" Leo asked cautiously.

The lonely bear nodded slowly, "That's my family when they were alive. That's my tribe when it was whole. That's... My old home."

.

 **End of Chapter**

.

 **A/N**

 **Welp, I did not mean to end on that depressing note.**

 **ANYWAYS!**

 **I'm really mean to Jaune and Cardin don't you think?**

 **I just flung them into a forest of Grimm without shirts on or weapons to tame creatures of pure hate. Not only that but Cardin kinda had a really shitty landing, though it's his own fault for being a jerk to Jaune and squirrels.**

 **Now Jaune** _ **MIGHT**_ **be getting carried off to the more dangerous part of the King's Forest by his mortal enemy... Or maybe he's just screaming because a Nevermore found him.**

 **But don't worry about him to much, I don't feel like killing off any of this stories characters so early in.**

 **Well Leo was already dead so he doesn't even count...**

 **On to the obvious questions!**

 **What are 'Calls'? Who the hell is 'Wise Owl'? Why is Cardin's elder brother obsessed with left socks? How do you even tell which ones left or rigth?!**

 **The answers to some of these question's will come! (Except for Genesis and the sock thing. No one knows why, not even me and I'm the author!)**

 **That's it for this chapter, laters!**


	5. Nevermore said the raven!

Arc: Introduction

Chapter 5: Nevermore said the raven!

 **A/N: This is the last chapter before Beacon! Whoohoo! Took me long enough right?**

 **UPDATE 12/27/2015: Fixed some spelling and grammar, I'm really getting specific with that stuff am I right?**

 **The start of the chapter is going to be in Jaune's perspective like I mentioned last chapter.**

 **This one was actually pretty hard to write...**

 **I could not for the life of me come up with what Grimm to have Jaune bond with. So I just kind of picked between Beowolf, because he's little wolf, and Nevermore, because it would be funny and fit's his tactical style of combat.**

 **Then I just did what seems to never fail me in times of indecision.**

 _ **"Eany, meany, miney, mo... That one!"**_

 **Not even kidding.**

 **Half way through writing it, I thought I'd introduce 'Little Sparrow' that was mentioned in chapter 1. Because I injured my idiots waaaay to much to get back to Koko on their own, even with their Metal Heads.**

 **That, and I thought it would be fun.**

 **So that's enough out of me! Hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the things I reference, they belong to their respective owners.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

.

* * *

.

 _"Caw once for big ass Grimm standing right behind me. Caw twice for big ass Grimm that is about to kill me."_ \- Jaune Arc

.

Sailing through the wind, the blonde projectile squinted as he looked for a good landing spot. Scanning the tree tops as the wind stung his eyes he realized he was getting closer and closer to the them now. Flowing his flames into his hands, the Little Wolf got ready to grab whatever branch he could.

 _'How I haven't died yet I will never know.'_ He thought dryly while bracing himself.

 **Crack!**

The shirtless wolf used the first branch he came into contact with to decrease his momentum. While getting scratched by every last tiny branch in his way as well. After the acrobatic and aerodynamic knight grabbed the branch with his gloved hands, he swung under it and snapped it from the force. Now the blonde acrobat just had to decrease his momentum a little-

"This is gonna hurt!" Jaune yelped as he looked forwards and saw a large tree in his way.

 **Thunk! Crack!**

Thinking quick, the soon to be crashing swordsmen threw his feet forwards and Boosted to tighten his muscles to lesson the impact against the sturdy tree. As soon as his sneakers broke through the bark and sent a spider web like indent in it, he was sure that it's going to hurt like hell to walk. Before he fell to his untimely death, the boy focused a Grip into his aching feet. Now that he was attached to the surface you could say that he has successfully landed without dying.

Barely...

With nothing better to do, the damaged knight looked around the trees trunk at the branches and found one that might support him.

Putting his hands on the tree he Griped it with his flames. After the knight was sure he had enough strength to move with only his hands he let his legs hang limply. Since it hurt like a bitch just to move his legs he didn't really have a choice but to use his hands.

Shuffling with his flame induced sticky palms, Jaune slowly made his way around the tree and down towards the branch. Along the way there, the injured knight couldn't help but notice how high he is.

 _'Why do these tree's have to be so freaking tall?'_ The hanging swordsmen groaned as he continued his descent. Scratching his stomach, chest, and arms on the tree made him wince with each swing of his body.

 _'Why the hell did I let her make me do this shirtless?'_ He thought while his slightly tan and lightly scared skin was itching from scrapping against the tree bark.

Once he reached the branch he sat down and pulled up his pant legs to check the damage. They are a little bruised, but other then that his legs are intact. Jaune doubted he could take his sneakers off to check his feet without causing pain from how sore they felt. So he left his shoes on and decided that when he got back from this Dust forsaken Grimm hunt thingy of his Masters, he was going to have that crazy women heal his entire freaking body with her Semblance.

Rolling his eyes he sighed heavily, _'Note to self: Buy metal boots like Cardin's, your sneakers suck at being used for stopping mid-flight.'_

Jaune let his legs hang limply for a little while as he rested. This isn't the first time this has happened and he knew he only needed a little rest and a Boost in his legs to keep walking. Though he'd be slower to move now with the pain, but pain is another thing he is used to.

Looking through the tree tops to where the barbarian was launched he wondered, _'I hope Cardin's landing is better then mine.'_

.

* * *

 _ **Ten minutes later...**_

.

Finally done resting and closing the many scratches on his body with his flame, the unfortunate adventurer had climbed down the tree and met the forest floor.

"Ground how I missed you so." The very done with this day blonde sighed happily.

Clapping his hands together and shacking out his legs a little, the weaponless knight got down to business.

"Now it's time to find my partner for the rest of my life."

Sighing heavily at the insanity of the situation, the swordsmen took out and looked at the white Heart Glass. That little glass ball made him feel like he was incomplete almost. Like a piece of him was missing and was trapped inside of it.

 **Caw! Caw!**

Jaune froze.

 _'Nope!'_

Turning on his heel, the distressed wolf ran using his flames in the opposite direction of that hellish call. He was NOT going to partner up with one of those winged fiends.

EVER.

After about 15 minutes of aimless running, the blond knight arrived at one of the many jagged cliff's in the King's Forest. Sighing in relief from escaping the bird of despair, Jaune walked to the edge of the cliff and looked out into the distance. There he saw the dark clouds of the southern half of the forest with it's everlasting dark clouds that produce heavy rain and lighting storms a lot of the time. Making that forested area more like a swamp then a forest.

Looking at the darker half of the forest where the sun never shines makes anyone feel weary of it, and with good reason. Inside that forest is the one type of Grimm Jaune and Cardin hate the most, Nightwalkers. They had a close call with one before and from what Koko has told them, that one was tiny compared to the average. They didn't believe their Master till the knight duo met her 'rival' a couple months ago.

The author refuses to accept that crazy person who tamed a Nightwalker as her Metal Head as her rival. They remember how Koko completely decimated the poor crazy lady. She didn't even have a chance to draw her swords before Koko unloaded a couple rounds of her patented 'blonde roast bullets' into her body.

Not a pretty sight.

The shirtless and worn out knight hunched over, "I didn't think I ran THAT far..." He looked up and let out a defeated sigh before turning around. It's going to be a long walk back for him.

He froze with eyes opened wide.

There before the blonde was none other then his mortal enemy.

 _'No.'_

Beady red eyes stared at his ocean blue ones through it's mask of bone.

 _'NO, NO, NO!'_

It unfurled it's pure black wings and spread them wide before the shirtless and weaponless Jaune Arc.

 **CAW! CAW!**

.

* * *

 _ **Back with Koko and Leo...**_

.

"Hey Koko," Leo turned towards the other faunus who grunted as she sat against a rock.

"Do you think Jaune will run into a Nevermore first?" The ghost asked.

Koko scratched the back of her head, "Prolly, that idiot attracts the damn things."

The lion faunus visibly shivered, "Yeah, but he hates them a lot. So do you think he would even do as you say and partner with it?"

"Haha!" Koko just laughed and shook her head.

"What?" Leo looked at the bear faunus who was now laughing a bit more.

"Well Leo," Koko looked at him with an evil grin, "An Arc never goes back on their word."

" **I HATE THURSDAYS!** "

Was the yell that echoed deep from the forest.

"Pfft! Hahahahahaha!" The bear faunus killed over onto her side and had to hold her stomach because of how much she was laughing.

"..." Leo looked over in the direction of the shout with pity.

"Poor guy can never catch a break on Thursdays..." The lion faunus sighed.

It was pretty ironic after all that it would happen to their lovable blonde after all.

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the unfortunate blonde idiot...**_

.

"Okay that's it!" Jaune yelled at the bird and put up his hands, taking on a near perfect boxing stance.

The Grimm looked slightly taken back by his actions, almost cautious. He noticed because his Crest Sight already activated from the sheer amount of rage he's feeling for being stuck with this winged monstrosity for the rest of his life.

 _'For a young Nevermore that's only a little taller then me it seems rather smart. Now that I think about it... This thing didn't attack me yet, it watched me...'_

The shirtless knight watched the bird with caution himself. If it was smart enough to inspect it's prey then it has to be smart enough to fight him better then the other winged monstrosities that kidnap him at least once a month. He also knew that any sudden movements and it would take off.

If that happens he's royally screwed.

 _'Okay Jaune! You have to take it out quickly, but how?'_ The knight watched the bird with complete focus.

Since Cardin and him started their training seven years ago, Koko has drilled into them the fact that watching your opponent is just as important as attacking. If you can figure out their habits and weaknesses you should exploit them.

 _'Rule number nine: If you find a weakness or a way to aggravate your opponent, show no mercy. Good thing I'm the expert on these feathery monsters, all I gotta do is watch it till it's wings swivel and shake...'_

As if on que the Grimm held it's wings out wide and they moved back and forth with each individual feather shacking slightly. Bringing it's wing's back behind it the bird thought it had found easy prey to fill full of holes.

How wrong it was.

 **Smack!**

Quickly Jaune IMT'd and sent a right jab at the Grimm's chest with a Boosted punch. Making it throw it's wings out to quickly and the feathery machinegun passed right by him. Some of the feathers cut his bare arms but he didn't care, he still had a feathery monster of death to beat up.

 **Thud! Smack!**

Hands still burning, the blonde boxer ruthlessly threw punch after punch at the Grimm's chest. The chest of a Nevermore is covered in softer feathers then the rest of it. Making it weaker to impacts unlike the rest of it's body.

Like seriously, why the hell are Nevermore feathers THAT dense?

Continuing his onslaught the shirtless knight didn't let up, but like he'd thought, this Nevermore was smart. Matching the rhythm of Jaune's punches it found his pattern and moved accordingly. Soon it swiveled a little and off-set his left straight into its black wing.

 **Crack!**

"Argh!" Jaune punch the metal-like wing hard causing a sickening crack.

 _'Great! a broken hand! What's next are you going to bite my head off?'_

As if reading his mind the Nevermore took the chance and threw it's head forward with the intent to bite the shirtless idiots head off. Quickly noticing it's movement the could-have-been snack ducked low and got closer to the Grimm.

Then Jaune did the one thing he swore he'd never do again.

He couldn't help but think about the conversation he had earlier today, but he already came to the conclusion it had to happen...

.

* * *

 _ **Before the fight with his Master(Ch. 2)...**_

.

 _"Unless yer crazy and figure out how to focus it in yer head." Koko chuckled while tapping the crown of her head._

 _"Th-that was one time! A-and it was also a desperate situation with an Alpha Beowolf!" Jaune got red faced and desperately tried to defend himself._

 _"What about the Nevermore?" The authors evil grin grew as Jaune shot her a glare at the mentioning of the "forbidden" Grimm._

.

* * *

 _ **End of flashback...**_

.

"RAAAAAAH!" Shouted the blonde bullet as he executed one of his many idiotic plans that always work.

 **Crack!**

Flames now raging from his feet and head, giving him a sort of flaming blonde and scraggly mane, Jaune jumped straight into the Nevermore's weakly protected stomach without warning.

 **Thunk!**

The Grimm was launched backwards with all the wind knocked out of it and he is more then sure that he cracked a few of it's bones. The Grimm was now laid down on it's side out cold.

 _'I-I did it?'_ Jaune smiled with wide eye's.

"I did it!" He yelled out with glee till a sharp pain in his head told him to stop.

Clutching his head he groaned while pulling the Heart Glass out of his pocket, with his still intact right hand. Then he noticed that not only was his left hand broken, but it was bleeding. So now Jaune's blonde hair is covered in blood on one side because he had instinctively put it to his head.

 _'Fantastic...'_ He groaned as he let his broken hand hang limply and let his flames stop the bleeding.

The broken boy slowly limped over to the downed Grimm. Now that he has exhausted himself thoroughly he doesn't have enough energy to produce enough flames to support his legs. He approached the Grimm with a weak smile though, he just did something that most people don't even think is possible. Hell no one would believe he did this except for his friends!

As he walked over he thought about having to be partnered with a Nevermore. That was something he was hoping to avoid, but he had a feeling it would happen. There was still one thing he had to worry about.

 _'They're going to have a field day with this one.'_ Jaune groaned at the thought of when he returned back to the clearing, _'I just partnered with my worst enemy in the world BESIDES public transportation...'_

He sighed heavily as he continued to limp, "One things for sure though..."

The blonde knight looked at the unconscious Nevermore with resolve, "I am NOT telling them how I beat it, EVER."

Now standing next to the Nevermore Jaune looked down at it and kneeled. He placed a hand on it and wondered where he is supposed to do it at. His eyes fell on the center of the Nevermore's chest that he was bashing in no more then a little bit ago.

Pushing the white glass into the Nevermore's chest a little, the knight laid his bloody and broken hand on it then started to flow the flames to it. It stung to move his hand but he needed to do this before the Grimm woke up. It felt weird to push them into the Nevermore though.

 _'It feels so empty inside.'_ Jaune thought with sadness.

As his soft orange flames spread across the Grimm the Heart Glass started to sink into it's chest.

"Whoa!" Jaune yelped while jumping to his feet and backed up a bit from the Grimm.

It was now burning pure white and it looked like the black on it's body was turning to ash. The black dust flew up into the orange dyed sky as it left it's body from the tips of it's feathers up. Leaving behind shining and soft silver colored feathers that seemed to glow brightly with the white flames.

He couldn't help but be awe stricken by what's happening in front of him.

It was like the white flame was purifying the evil, no it was. That flame was burning so familiar to his own, but more complete. It was full of his resolve to banish the evil that plagues the darkness of the world, the evil that fester's in the shadows.

When the flames reached it's head the bone mask started to crack as it turned black like it's feathers were. Then it fully broke off and fell to the ground but before it hit the ground it turned into the same black ash that was still floating into the sky.

"Whoa..." Jaune continued to watch as the white flame grew brighter around the mask less Grimm's face, forcing him to squint as it left behind a shimmering silver plate. The metal plate was in the same place and shape as the bone mask it used to have, but just below both it's eyes were two small yellow crescent moons.

 _'My symbol...'_ Jaune thought while touching his cheeks with his right hand.

The Grimm's eyes were still closed as the bright white flames started to become less bright around it's face. He watched as the last bits of evil from the former Grimm flew up as ashes into the orange and red sky. As the black ashes ceased to be Jaune started to feel like he was whole again. Like that piece of him he put in the Heart Glass was back inside him, but he knew it wasn't.

Jaune looked towards the silver feathered former Nevermore.

He noticed that the Metal Heads beak was a dull grey color now. The bloodied knight's blue eyes moved lower to inspect the Metal Heads feet next. The skin on it's feet was the same color as the beak now, a dull grey, and the claws were a metallic silver like the mask. The claws now have thin yellow tribal like scrawling's on them to.

He also noticed, now that the flames were gone, that the soft silver colored feather's were tipped a blonde color. As his eyes inspected the feather's up from the feet of the Metal head, they soon landed on it's smaller feathers on it's chest.

Where he saw the coolest part.

There on it's chest surrounded by silver down feathers, was a circular silver plate. In the center of it was the white Heart Glass, but now it was as big as golf ball. Surrounding it was yellow scrawling that gave it a real tribal feeling.

 _'Is this the form that would please me the most? Well it looks really cool that's for sure.'_ Jaune smiled as he looked at the bird's silver and blonde-tipped feathers.

Finding his legs, the tired and beaten boy limped over to the beast before him. He decided a little nap wouldn't kill him and leaned against the bird's soft silver feathered stomach.

 _'It's my Metal Head, no rules against using it as a pillow.'_

.

* * *

 _ **30 minutes later...**_

.

"Caw!"

 _'What the hell?'_ Jaune slowly opened his eyes.

"What's happenin'?" Slurred the very tired boy as he was roused from his nap.

"Caw! Caw!"

Jaune looked straight into ocean blue eyes that reminded him of his own, but they were peering through slits in a silver mask. The creatures head was turned to the side and it's eyes looked a little worried to him. Like they were unsure about whether or not to move or even what it should do with the boy sleeping on it.

"AH!" Jaune screamed and scrambled behind a nearby rock for cover.

 _'What the hell happen-Wait a minute.'_

Looking out from behind the rock, he saw that the silver bird was gone. Standing up fully now the bloody haired blonde looked around. He still didn't see his Metal Head anywhere in the little clearing by the cliff.

 _'Did I scare it off? Oh dang it!'_

"Caw..."

Jaune's attention turned to the forest where he saw the Metal Head hiding behind a bunch of bushes. It looked so scared of him, just like he was when he woke up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Jaune said softly to the bird and slowly limped over.

"It's okay, come here..." Jaune said after he stopped limping. He held a hand out to it and smiled a little bit.

Albeit painfully since he has a broken hand, probably sprained ankles, and every joint in his body was sore after this very, VERY, long Thursday.

After a few seconds the Metal Head came out from behind the bushes and moved slowly over to him. Now that it wasn't as scary and trying to kill him, Jaune noticed that it was only about a head taller. Which really surprised the extremely tired little wolf.

 _'That's the shortest Nevermore I have ever seen. Was it this small when I fought it? Or did my anger and fear make me see it bigger? That wouldn't make sense though because I had my Crest Sight-Oh Dust what's it doing!?'_

The Metal Head had gently taken his arm in it's grey beak and was trying to get him to move.

"Ummm..." The skittish blonde let it move his hand without resistance. He felt oddly trusting of the large bird that could probably kill him easily since he was covered in injuries.

The Metal Head then brought his hand to the silver plate on the center of it's chest where Jaune's Heart Glass is imbedded. As soon as he made contact with the silver plate his flames seeped out of his hand and glowed.

"Caw~!" Crowed his Metal Head after releasing his arm. The bewildered knight just kept his hand there and watched his flames dance across his skin and the birds silver plate.

"So is this some sort of, uh, proof thing?" Jaune smiled sheepishly up at the grey beaked bird. It nodded to him and Jaune took his hand off the Metal Head's chest.

 _'Only one thing left to do Jaune! Make Cardin proud and show him you CAN come up with good names.'_ Jaune thought with resolve.

"What should I name you..." Jaune mumbled as he limped over to the rock he hid behind.

Haphazardly climbing on top of it, the injured boy sat down and let his tired legs rest. His gaze was looking out past the chasm towards the dark sky's of the southern half of the forest. Watching the dark clouds thunder and the lighting strike, it was like a war between the dark forest and the sky.

"How about a color?" Jaune looked back at the curious Metal Head that was walking towards him.

"My name is Jaune, and that means Yellow." Jaune explained while the silver winged bird tilted it's head curiously as if asking why.

"Well after a war a long time ago, people started to name their kids after colors. It's a symbolic thing really, so I figured I'd name you after a color to. Since your now an ally to mankind now and all." Jaune smiled to the bird.

He didn't feel afraid of it, it was like him but not at the same time. Like a part of him is inside the former Nevermore and that part took over everything, but also left it room to grow. Room to change and be it's own existence. Is that an effect of putting a piece of his own heart and soul inside of it? Like it feels like him because it has his heart, but feels different because it's growing it's own soul from that little piece of his?

"Caw!" The Metal Head looked to be happy with what Jaune was saying.

"You like that idea?" Jaune had a toothy grin at how adorable his Metal Head is.

Nodding it's head to it's blonde master, the Metal Head got a little closer to him and laid it's head on his lap.

"Your pretty affectionate aren't you?" Jaune said while stroking the soft silver feathers.

"Caaaw~!" It crowed again with joy from getting it's masters attention.

"Hmm, how about Silver? Because you have really cool silver feathers." Jaune said while looking up at the sky that was growing darker by the minute.

"Caw! Caw!" The Metal Head sang while burying it's head in Jaune's stomach.

"Easy there Silver, I'm kind of injured." The injured knight winched from the extra pressure on his aching legs and arms. He used his Heat of Will way to much today and caused quite a bit of damage.

"Caw..." Silver picked it's head off Jaune's lap slowly.

Looking at his sad Metal Head Jaune folded and patted it's head, "It's okay, now come on."

The knight climbed off the rock and started limping back towards the forest. It was getting pretty dark now and they had to head back before the Nightwalkers came out. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of two years ago.

"Caw?" Silver tilted it's head curiously.

"We have to get back before it's get's to dark out. My friends are waiting for us after all." Jaune smiled at the bird that quickly ran towards him.

But then it stopped.

"C-Caw..." Silver cried out shakily to it's master who also froze on the spot.

"Caw once for big ass Grimm standing right behind me. Caw twice for big ass Grimm that is about to kill me." Jaune said as his fear activated his Crest Sight again and his soft orange flames etched his yellow crescent moons on his cheeks.

"CAW CAW CAW!" Cried Silver.

"Great all of the above!" Jaune said with annoyance as he IMT'd straight to his Metal Head.

Turning on a dime the shirtless, sore, and very much wounded knight looked towards the bushes behind him. There he saw piercing red eyes like flowing blood stare through the dark brush. A low growl was booming from inside as the leaves shivered from the beast moving forwards.

Out of the bushes it came, the one Grimm he didn't want to see.

Besides a Nevermore that is.

"I know just what to do Silver." Jaune turned to his Metal Head who nodded at him.

.

* * *

 _ **Somewhere above the King's Forest...**_

.

"What's the matter my Lady?" A maid asked the young girl with snow white hair.

"I feel like a friend of mine is in trouble." The girl turned from the large window and frowned to her maid who looked rather stunned.

"I-I beg your pardon?" The maid asked her.

"In this forest below us," The white haired girl said while turning back to look out the window at the multi-colored trees, "I have two friends. They are dunces who have some sort of Grimm forsaken curse following one of them. Which always gets the other one and anyone else who's with him in trouble."

"Curse?" The maid asked curiously.

She had only been in the young heiresses private staff for about three months. Strangely her employer had fired all her other staff and hired her, even though she was a faunus along with many others who needed work in the slums out of the blue one day. They all thought they would be subjected to slander and such as soon as they agreed. But with the amount of money she offered they figured it would be more then enough to support their families and worth the pain.

But the cruel words never came.

The Lady always just poured over books and studied like it was her whole life, and even spent time working for the company in various ways. When they were asked by her to make sure to remind her of dates and times as well as to eat they were curious. But they soon figured out that she often forgot these things when she worked so hard. They tried to ask why she hired a group of faunus and she gave them a sad smile, but never answered.

The Lady did not speak much to her other staff unless they were needed. This is the first time the Lady has spoken with her so openly, or anyone since the time they met. It always seemed like she was moving in calculation to something. Like she was seeing something the rest of them were missing and working towards it.

"Yes, a curse. The blonde dunce always get's nearly killed on Thursday without fail." The white haired girl looked out at the darkening forest with worry and a little annoyance.

"I was not aware of this my Lady, I'm sure they're oka-"

" **Kyyyaaaaaaaaa!** "

" **Caaaaaaaaaaaw!** "

The two women rushed to the window and placed their hands on the glass. They looked down towards a cliff where a boy with no shirt and a lot of blood on him was screaming like a little girl. Next to him was a giant bird thing that almost looked like a Nevermore, but had silver feathers. And if birds can scream like little girls, it was doing that right this very moment.

In front of them was a tiger like Grimm that was probably the source of their girlish screams.

"Oh my!" The maid gasped.

"That blonde dunce really can't catch a break on Thursdays..." The white haired girl groaned and rushed to the her private room on her family airship. She slammed open the door and rummaged through her foot chest at the bottom of her bed where she put her combat gear.

"Where are you going?" The maid rushed after her mistress.

The maid could not for the life of her understand how the small girl could run AND fight in heels.

"Where do you think Amber? I'm going to go and rescue my idiotic blonde that is practically one of my few REAL friends in the world." The white haired girl said while grabbing her silver rapier and rushing out of her room.

"I-I don't know if you should-" The white haired girl put a single finger over her maids mouth. The dog faunus girls ears immediately flattened by reaction as she stared down at the shorter girl.

"Don't worry about me, in a month I'll be attending Beacon academy remember? What I need you to do for me Amber is get me close to that cliff. I'll be waiting by the bay doors, and tell pilot Green he's fired if he doesn't comply." The white haired girl rushed to the lower level of the ship after giving her orders.

"Bu-but Miss Weiss Schnee!" The maid shouted after her in vain.

.

* * *

 _ **Back to the screaming idiots...**_

.

 **ROAR!**

The Nightwalker charged at the pathetic prey before it without mercy.

The knight and the bird moved out of the way quickly, making the black and grey striped beast rush past them to the edge of the cliff. The beast turned around and gave them a predatory growl of annoyance. Baring it's teeth and showing just how sharp they were.

 _'That thing is freaking huge!'_ Jaune had thankfully been able to keep his head straight with his Crest Sight.

If he didn't have that, he'd probably have fainted.

The Nightwalker was almost as tall as him on all fours and had large teeth protruding from it's mouth like a saber toothed tiger. The ash grey strip's were jagged and the bones protruding from it's back were even bigger then the ones on the Nightwalker that tried to kill him two years ago. It's claws were long and sharper then steel if the reflecting quality of them is anything to go by.

"We are royally screwed Silver." Jaune said with eerie calm.

Since he is absolutely terrified right now his Crest Sight is pumping even more flames into his blood. Furthering it's calming effect to keep his head in the game forcefully. Something he is extremely thankful for having.

"You dunce!" Jaune looked up to see a fancy looking airship draw near.

Standing inside was his good friend, "Little Sparrow!"

"Focus you fool!" On cue, the fool looked to see the Nightwalker charge straight for him.

"Oh come on!" The battered knight groaned while IMTing out of the Grimm's path.

 _'Damn it hurts just to move let alone use my flame. I have to get out of here, there's no chance of winning and I doubt the Little Sparrow could kill that thing alone.'_

"Little Sparrow! I don't have a weapon and I'm really badly injured!" Jaune yelled through the pain engulfing his legs from his sudden movement's.

Jaune yelped as the silver winged Metal Head jumped in front of him. Even though the silver feathered bird was shaking with fear, Jaune couldn't help but admire it's courage.

 **RAWR!**

"C-Caw!"

And just like that Silver had darted behind it's master and hid there.

 _'It's okay, if I didn't have my Crest Sight I would have fainted by now.'_ The blonde knight thought while petting the poor things head and keeping an eye on the extremely terrifying Grimm.

Weiss jumped out of the airship and landed near the blonde and his silver bird using a glyph. Jaune always wanted to know how those thingies worked, but never had the guts to ask. Because he knows for a fact he'll get a tongue lashing and a REALLY long lecture.

"Why the hell are you shirtle-! Rule number 6 right?" Weiss deadpanned.

"Yup..." Jaune sighed as he held his broken left hand.

 _'I'm surprised she remembered that rule of Masters.'_ The knight chuckled a little bit and a glare from the ice princess shut him up in an instant.

 _'She still has a glare that could freeze the sun, that hasn't changed a bit.'_ The knight smiled nervously as his Metal Head shivered behind him.

"Want to explain the giant bird?" Weiss motioned to the silver feathered bird.

"We'll do introduction's later-" Jaune was promptly cut off by his best friend.

 **CRASH!**

"JAUNE!" Cardin busted through the forest riding on a...

"Oh my Dust you beat up an Ursa with your bare hands!?" Jaune gapped at his large friend who got off the war bear and glared daggers at the Nightwalker who couldn't decided who to eat first.

"What did you just say?!" Weiss' head whirled between the blonde dunce and the barbaric dunce.

 **Roar!**

 **Grrrrrr.**

"Yes, yes I did. When did Little Sparrow get here?" Cardin asked while narrowing his eyes further at the Nightwalker and growling.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, it was thoroughly obvious that she has given up her last bits of sanity.

"You shirtless fools have a lot of things to explain after this..." She mumbled while readying Myrtenaster for battle.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Jaune got in the heiresses way and made her stop before she could charge forwards.

"What?!" The icy little bird yelled indignantly at the blonde fool before her.

"I-If you just charge in you'll die, s-so instead how about we get on the airship?" The nervous knight asked hopefully and the white haired girl sighed.

 _'Even if I hate those things, I'd rather ride it then die.'_ Jaune laughed nervously at his thoughts.

"Fine, you two stand over by the cliff while I immobilize the beast." Weiss said while turning the Dust canister in her rapier to white.

"That's a plan I can get behind!" Cardin said while rolling his aching shoulders.

Quickly, the knight duo along with their Metal Head's went to the edge of the cliff near the airship their friend just jumped from. Taking a moment they looked at each other. They both raised a brow at their largely injured bodies.

"What happened to you?" Jaune asked while holding his broken hand and looking at all the bruises on his friend.

 _'Did he break his wrists?'_ Jaune looked at his friend's heavily bruised wrists.

"I could ask you the same thing about you." Cardin rolled his eyes while pointing at Jaune broken hand.

 _'You have freaking blood all over yer damn hair and pants and your worried about me?'_ Cardin sighed.

"Well I broke my hand while punching a Nevermore and screwed up my landing pretty bad." Jaune said while tilting his head to Silver, "This is Silver by the way. So what happened to you?"

"I rolled down a fucking hill after screwing up my landing twice and then I sprained both my wrists trying to beat up an Ursa." The cardinal growled and hiked a thumb at the war bear, "This is Gold by the way."

 _'Wait a minute...'_ Jaune deadpanned.

 _'Seriously?'_ Cardin deadpanned as well.

"I don't think we'll hear the end of this from Master." The Little Wolf sighed and the Little Cardinal nodded.

 **CRRRACK!**

Turning their attention back to the Little Sparrow. The wolf and the cardinal looked on with wonder, and a little fear. For their dear friend had not only created a pillar of ice, but had trapped the Nightwalker inside.

"Now remember Silver, don't piss off Weiss." Jaune turned to his Metal Head who was shaking. Silver gave it's master a scared nod without tearing it's eyes from the strong ice cold women before it.

 _'I'm more then sure I had the same expression when Weiss turned her cold gaze on me for the first time two years ago...'_ Jaune sighed at the memory. Cardin and him still think she has secret ice power's or something.

"Wimps..." Cardin rolled his eyes along with his Metal Head Gold.

"Let's move before the ice shatters!" Weiss ran over to them and looked at the strange creatures.

"You two really have some explaining to do." Weiss said with narrowed eyes as she charged her Semblance.

"Just fling us off the cliff already." Cardin rolled his eyes and Jaune did a double take.

 _'I can take one more launch and I'd rather not jump, my knee's will give out before I'm off the ground.'_ Cardin grimaced while feeling his aching bones.

"Get ready." Weiss said while narrowing her icy blue eyes.

"Oh Dust!" Jaune yelped while bracing himself. Silver had flew up and into the sky already and the blonde idiot wished he had taken a lift.

 **THWOMP!**

The trio of misfits was quickly launched at a perfect angle towards the open airship. Weiss has perfect aim when it comes to firing people like projectiles after all. She's had a lot of practice over the years from what they could tell.

The trio was doing what they did best as they soared through the sky over the mist filled chasm below...

"AAAAH!" Jaune screamed.

"WHOOOHOOOOO!" Cardin was ecstatic.

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!" Weiss was annoyed with how idiotic they were.

All in a days work for the trouble trio.

.

* * *

 _ **A little while later on the airship...**_

.

"So let me get this straight, Koko launched you both into the forest to fight Grimm bare handed and then turn them into creatures called Metal Heads?" Weiss asked with exasperation while pointing at the Metal heads.

"Yes." Cardin said with a big smirk on his face.

"I'm surprised I managed to stay sane after knowing you dunces these last two years..." Weiss groaned and slouched a little in her chair.

"Don't be like that Little Sparrow, I know your not as cold as WEISS! Haha!" Cardin laughed at his own pun while resounding chuckles echo'd through the ship.

"Don't make me pull out my 'Schnee Ice Lord Magic'." Weiss air quoted with a small smirk and the barbarian knight sniggered.

"I can't believe you remembered that." The happy cardinal rolled his eyes while sinking deeper into the comfy chair.

When they first met two years ago Cardin was sure as hell that the Little Sparrow and her father the 'Ice King' were some sort of snow monsters. Hell the first hour Cardin and Jaune knew her she almost froze the knight duo's favorite café with only her presence. Cardin theorized that Weiss must have secret 'Schnee Ice Lord Magic' and when he told Jaune that, he didn't realize she was listening.

"Oh I remember, I also remember your expression when I turned you into a block of ice." The snow sparrow smirked at the now shivering cardinal.

 _'That was a cold day in hell...'_ The Little Cardinal shook the memory away.

Now that the group was safe inside her family airship, they were on their way to the clearing where Jaune and Cardin train. Koko and Leo are probably still waiting there for them after all.

Weiss' private airship was just as grand as you'd think. The décor was in shades of grey and was perfectly kept. The interior design was elegant and prestigious. Her maids and butlers already tended to her friends wounds best they could with their limited knowledge in medicine.

Weiss and Cardin were seated on a pair of couches in the observation part of the ship that had a large window. Next to them were the Metal Heads, Gold and Silver. The giant bird and the lazy bear were lying down and only with their presence scared all the servents on the ship. And our fearless and heavily injured blonde knight is...

Hunched over the trashcan in the corner and dry heaving.

"M-my Lady." Weiss' maid Amber walked up to her.

"Yes Amber?" Weiss looked at her maid curiously.

"I-I don't quite understand what's going on." Amber siad while fiddling with the hem of her white shirt.

Cardin looked the maid over from his position carefully.

She was about average height and looked a little older then them, probably in her early twenties like their Master. She was wearing a white polo shirt with the Schnee logo above the right breast pocket. She wore light grey slacks that reached to cover the tops of her white dress shoes. A simple icy blue ascot was around her neck and tied to the side like those flight attendant's wear.

What got most of his attention was her grey hair and pointed dog ears, they were like an atlesian shepards. Her eyes were brown to, and looked pretty damn scared of his hulking bear no more then ten feet from her.

"You hired new staff." Cardin raised a brow and looked at Weiss.

"For someone who can't remember the names of anyone but his friends, that is rather impressive." Weiss said with a smirk.

"Ha ha ha, very funny." Cardin deadpanned at Weiss.

 **Grrrrrrr.**

"Eep!" The maid back away from the bear.

Gold was glaring daggers at Weiss with it's indigo eyes and the snow sparrow was returning the gesture with twice the intensity.

"Easy Gold, we're in friendly territory." Cardin chuckled and the bear just scoffed and laid back down.

"Miss Schnee I think we've located the clearing you spoke of, we will be landing shortly." The pilot announced over an intercom system.

"Thank you Green." Weiss said while pressing a respond button on the table next to her.

The snow sparrow and cardianl looked towards the blonde dunce in the corner that had a giant silver feathered former Nevermore hovering over him. It had left the comfy chairs after it's master started to heave a little bit heavier into the trashcan. The poor thing was so worried about it's master that it looked like it was going to cry!

"Hear that Little Wolf? We're almost there so don't puke." The cardinal called out to his friend that raised a shaky hand to give the cardinal a thumbs up.

"These carpets are new so if you do puke, YOUR cleaning them." Weiss said with a pointed glare at the blondes depressing form.

"Got it..." Jaune groaned with his head in the trashcan.

 _'I know they're worried, they're just embarrassed to admit their feelings.'_ The blonde knight rolled his eyes at that thought. Those two grumpy birds don't like to show concern but he can easily tell they are. Their tones are a dead giveaway on that fact to him.

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* * *

 _ **In the clearing...**_

.

"Koko! It's an airship!" Leo pointed up at the night sky.

"Airship?" Koko looked up to see a light grey ship with little white streamers flowing behind it.

"I hope our idiots are on it and it isn't another bunch of fools tryin' to get me to join their little freedom fight." Groaned the bear faunus.

The lion faunus just laughed, "I don't think so, I feel Jaune and Cardin's flames in there."

"Ever since ya got some of yer memory back..." The eye-patched bear faunus started and Leo tilted his head at her, "Yer even better at locating flames, why is that? Do ya know?"

"I... I'm not really sure." The see through lion looked down steadily.

"Well whatever the case, it's damn helpful." Koko grunted as she went and got her first aid kit from Asru.

"What's that for?" The shirtless lion asked.

"They probably almost killed themselves, need to take care of their wounds and all that shit." The author chuckled while scratching her short brown hair.

"Can't you just patch them up with your Semblance?"

"Nah, I can mend the bones they likely broke but that's it. Bruising and shit will take time and I will need to disinfect some of the scratches even if their flames sealed them. Can't be to cautious with that sort of thing." The bear smiled while going through the kit.

"Awww your like a super loving and smart big sister!" Leo cooed at Koko.

 **Bang!**

"If I was alive, I'd be dead." Leo said with wide eyes as he rose a ghostly hand to the space between his eyes.

"Damn straight you would." Koko sneered while blowing the smoke from her pistol Shout.

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* * *

 **End of Chapter**

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 **A/N:**

 **I might have ended that a bit early, but I don't really have much choice. If I explain everything right now then that would kill the fun. So for now I will just leave you with that, next up is Beacon Academy!**

 **I'm going to put up a poll to for you guys.**

 **I don't know if I should get Weiss deeply involved or just have her as a sort of extra character from this point on. I'd really appreciate your time to think on that and help me out. (I have decided)**

 **Thanks for reading! Laters!**


	6. Wise Owl

Arc: The Game Begin's

Chapter 6: Wise Owl

 **A/N: You know the drill.**

 **First off!**

 **Thanks for the reviews and all your opinions on Weiss being a core character! I have decided that I will have her play a major role and the rest of RWBY will be left out of the loop till after a certain point.**

 **I told myself before I posted the first chapter of this story that after I finished the Intoduction Arc I'd start to watch volume 3 of RWBY. I hadn't watched any of it till then, and I got to say...**

 **Part of the plot's almost exactly like my own!**

 **Magic is real on Remnant plus myths and legends are a big part I made of the backstory(refer to chapter 1 if you don't remember)! Its not exactly the same plot, but it's still super close. So now I don't have to deviate to much from the story and make my own out of thin air. Though I still kind of am going to do that, most of team RWBY's encounters with the White Fang will go differently from Weiss' recollections to our knight duo.**

 **That's enough out of me, lets get this show on the road!**

 **WARNING: There will be cursing, bad puns, sarcasm, and Cardin Winchester.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it belongs to its respective owners and the same goes for all the things I reference.**

 **My OC's are mine, but I could lend them out if you PM me about it.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud

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* * *

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 _"If that's your 'sweetheart' I'd hate to see your 'lover'."_ \- Cardin Winchester

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It's been a month since we last saw the heroic(?) duo. Since then, they have been training in the old ways of the nomadic tribes. As newly inducted members of Kilika they had a LOT of things to learn, most of which almost killed them.

Just their average Thursday really.

For the last month they have trained to hone their skills in synching with their Metal Heads, Silver and Gold. Learned exactly what a 'Voice' and 'Calls' are and their significance to the nomads. As well as learned more about old legends that have a grain of depressing and or dangerous truth.

Even the real reason the Wise Owl visits Koko, and how he has no idea that she knows the true reason for his interest in legends and myths known only to the nomads.

For now, our fearless(?) knight duo is going to enjoy some peace and quiet this Wednesday afternoon.

Hopefully...

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* * *

 _ **At the Beacon Academy Air Docks...**_

.

"I. Hate. Bullheads." Jaune said with his head in a trashcan next to the bullhead docking area.

"We know Little Wolf." Leo said while watching over the blonde boy with worry.

"You have to admit though." Smirked Cardin, "It was pretty funny when you threw up a little on that blonde chicks shoes."

"No it wasn't Cardin." Jaune groaned and Leo continued to hover around him.

 _'More then sure I will never live that down.'_ The blonde groaned at the fact that his first impression was literally ON a person.

"They called you 'Vomit Boy', and I call throwing up on her shoes 'even'." Scowled the not-nice-or-happy-when-in-public Cardin Winchester.

"I have to agree with the Little Cardinal on that one, it's not like you can do anything about it." Leo frowned while continuing to watch over the sickly boy.

 _'This guy has to learn to be mean or he'll always get stepped on by jerks and idiots.'_ The miffed cardinal increased the intensity of his gaze at a large group of new students that were laughing at his buddy.

Needless to say, they scattered almost instantly.

 _'Damn herbivores are everywhere, isn't there anyone worth our time at this school? These 'hunters-in-training' are supposed to be the warriors that are going to protect the future of the world. How the hell can they do that if a glare scares them off?'_ The cardinal only found them to be pathetic and unsightly to say the least.

"Whoa... that's probably a new record." The apparition raised a brow at the display of his friends powerful glare.

"Don't scare people Little Cardinal, it will make it hard to have friends here." The motion sick swordsmen said barely while slowly raising his head out of the trashcan.

 _'Why do I have to be motion sick when anyone BUT Cardin or Master is driving?'_ Sighed the blonde as he walked to his partners side.

Leo was floating around them since he is attached to the sheath and sword on their backs. Cardin has Star's Lagacy's sheath on his back and Jaune has the sword in a spar leather scabbard. That way if they get separated all the ghost had to do is pull on the sheath and sword to bring them together again at the middle.

"If they get scared from just that, then they aren't even worth our time. Hell they're a waste of space in this school if they're that weak." The barbarian knight rolled his eyes.

"And this is why most people either hate you or don't like you until three months after they meet you." Jaune deadpanned at his natrual scowling friend.

"I don't need half-assed friends that won't stay by me when things go to shit. That's why I like you guys remember?" Cardin said while crossing his arms and scowling as usual.

"I know, but sometimes you need to give people chance." Jaune tried to reason with his very unfriendly friend.

"Fine, next herbivore we find I'll be 'nice' to them." Cardin sighed and the blonde knight smiled at that sliver of hope.

 **BOOM!**

 _'Wait for it...'_ The Little Wolf sighed as he watched his pal's thin indigo eyes gleam dangerously.

"Let's check it out." The mace wielder said with a evil smirk and started walking towards the piller of black smoke. It was rising into the air ominously and was slightly familiar.

Probably because of how many times they've been blown up in the last seven years.

"Figured you'd say that." Jaune sighed as him and the brown haired ghost followed close behind.

"After we see what it is though we gotta make a map of all possible exits. Who knows what we'll get into while we're at this school or if we'll encounter _them_." The blonde knight said in a steely tone as they approached the scene.

"I know." The burnt orange knight said with resolve of his own.

"Well if it isn't the Winchester dog and the Failure Arc." Called out a smooth voice with a bit of a bite.

The two knight's whirled around to see someone they both know. Someone that they both really want to beat the crap out of. Someone that has been nothing but a jerk to them for a long time. Someone that is really strong and honorable, but WAY to much of an ass.

Azure Du Lok, youngest son of Midnight Du Lok of the Knights of Vale.

"Great, the blue haired herbivore is here." Cardin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"He's a cardinal, not a dog herbivore." Jaune seethed at the bane of his existence.

Everyday his father was home he'd always go to the local bar and talk about how much Jaune sucked at being a warrior. Then he'd talk non-stop about his best friend Midnight and his perfect son's, his youngest son Azure in particular. The Little Wolf hates the color just from how much his father would say it.

 _'I really can't escape Da-Hadvar's, life.'_ Jaune grinded his teeth with his thoughts.

The blonde swordsman balled his hands into fists and glared hard. He wasn't angry enough to force his Crest Sight to activate, but he was angry enough to want to punch the guy. Which is really saying something since the Little Wolf forgives people easily.

"Uhhhh, I'm confused." Leo said while inspecting the young man who's sneering at his bestest buddies.

He was about as tall as Jaune, maybe a little taller, and had azure blue hair with steel grey eyes. He wore armor that was very grand and intricate. The plate mail covering the azure haired boy's body was white steel with azure accents and bits that made him look like a really cool knight. He even had an azure blue cape with a helmet and two swords crossed behind it stitched in with white thread. Leo could only assume that is his symbol or something.

Don't even get our favorite ghost started on the guy's giant sword that had some sort of Dust revolver like the Little Sparrows on it. That thing was as big as the guy carrying it so leisurely on his shoulder!

"Are you sure? Because all I see is a dog, and how can I be the herbivore if your my prey hm?" The azure knight said with a smirk.

 _'I want to tell Cardin to let Gold eat him, I'm sure Gold would be happy to do it.'_ Jaune grit his teeth as his flames started to poor heavier into his blood. Signaling that he was almost to the point of his Crest Sight activating.

 _'I want to ask Jaune if I can let Gold eat him, I'm sure Gold would enjoy doing it.'_ Cardin hardened his scowl at the mutual mortal enemy and felt his own flames burn just under his skin.

"This guys an ass." Leo said while crossing his arms and glaring at Azure along with his buddies.

"I'd rather be a dog then whatever the fuck you are." The barbarian said through grit teeth.

"I thought that your family hates faunus? Oh that's right! You serve a faunus women now and do her bidding. From what I hear this 'Koko' is a failure of a Huntress who was put down three years ago and became an atrocious author of dirty literature. That poor crippled women was only a huntress for a few years even and didn't do anything worth while." Sneered the Azure haired boy as he tried to get a rise out of them.

"Don't you dare talk about our big sister like that! You don't know anything about her!" Jaune yelled at the azure haired bastard as him and Cardin prepared to beat the crap out of the guy.

"Sister? Now that's rich." Azure smirked at accomplishing his goal and turned around from the fools before him.

"Well have fun playing 'Huntsmen' you disgraces, I have places to be... and people who are actually worth my time to meet." Azure walked off and went towards the main building with loud steps full of pride.

"I suggest we map out that building last." Leo said with grit teeth, but his friends didn't hear him because they were consumed with rage.

The lion faunus quickly noticed their symbols appear on their faces and thanked the Eight Divine Dragons that no one else was here. If their little secret got out this early in the game they'd have a lot of explaining to do to. So thankfully before the barbarian and swordsman could draw their weapons and kill the guy, Leo stopped them. Cardin and Jaune froze when they felt Leo's ghostly hands grip their shoulders tightly. How the ghost can do that, they will never know.

"It's not worth it, that guy will get it coming to him someday. 'Siran will see to it, so just believe in the Divine Dragon of the Sun and Luck." The ghostly lion said with a determined look at the extremely pissed off boys.

Jaune nodded his head slowly and took a deep breath to calm down. It worked thankfully and then he could only look at the building Azure went into and sigh.

 _'He's a great guy to everyone BUT us...'_ Jaune thought sadly about the azure haired boy.

"I sure as hell hope so, that Dragon owes Jaune for every Thursday of his life." Cardin said before taking a deep breath to calm down like his partner.

"No kidding." The blonde knight rolled his eyes.

"So, back to the explosion?" The cheery orange eyed lion asked with his usual vigor.

"Hell yeah." Smirked the mace user as he turned around and made his way to where the black smoke had once been.

"Great, you just had to remind him." The annoyed swordsmen sighed at the apparition who only whistled innocently in return.

It didn't take long to get to the scene of the explosion. As they got closer they saw some guys pushing some Schnee Dust crates, but didn't see the Little Sparrow. They also saw a women with long black hair and a bow leaving the scene. And on the ground...

They saw a down trodden girl with a red hood lying on her back.

"Think she noticed us yet?" The naturally scowling boy whispered to his friends.

"I don't think so." Leo said with a critical eye as he watched the girl who was a little ways from them.

"We should help her." The saddened blonde said to his partners in crime.

The doofus blonde's mom always said to help people in need and turn someone's bad day into a good one anyway you can. Jaune has always admired his mom for how kind and generous she is and wants to be like that himself. Jogging up to the girl, Jaune slowed his pace when he was close enough to get a good look at her.

She has short dark hair with red tips that was tousled every which way. With a familiar round face, pointed chin, and big eyes that really struck a resemblance with Koko. The girl was wearing mostly black and red in a sort of gothic style and had a red cloak pinned to her shirt with silver crosses. On her waist was some ammunition boxes that he's seen his Master buy a lot for her bigger guns and he could make out a chunk of red metal underneath her waist.

 _'Okay mouth, don't fail me now!'_ Thought the awkward swordsmen.

"H-Hi." The hopeful knight reached out a hand to the girl who opened her eyes.

 _'Whoa they're silver, that's so cool-She's lonely and worried like, really really lonely and worried.'_ Jaune for once knows exactly what to do.

"I'm Jaune." The swordsmen said softly to the girl with sad eyes.

She smiled up a bit at him and looked a little bit better, "Ruby."

As soon as the knight pulled her off the ground she started to giggle.

 _'What the-?'_

"Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" She asked while trying to stifle her giggles.

 _'Well, this is fantastic.'_ The unfortunate knight sighed heavily.

.

* * *

 _ **A little bit later...**_

.

For a couple minutes the quartet have been walking around the gardens and talking about Jaune's problem. The barbarian had already started to work on the map of the school with his scroll and found a couple good spot's to hide at already.

The first thing their Master taught them about was hiding. It is a basic and very important part of survival, even in an urban setting. If you can hide from a Grimm then you can hide from anything so they got a lot of practice as kids in the King's Forest. Thanks to the cardinals brother Genesis, they got a complete map of the campus that they can mark as needed for all escape routes and share it easily. This map is also way easier to use and understand then the ones Beacon provides.

The technologically challenged knight duo always did have a hard time with scrolls...

"Sorry, Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." Ruby apologized and Jaune saw she meant it.

Won't stop him from teasing her.

"Well what if I called you Crater Face?" Jaune said with a smirk triumphantly.

 _'I'm a bad influence and I love it.'_ The mischievous cardinal grew an evil grin.

"Hey! That explosion was an accident!" Blushed the little red head.

"Well the names Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue! Ladies love it!" Stated the zealous blonde knight.

 _'That intro wasn't half bad buddy.'_ The map marker smirked a little at his friend while Leo was laughing a bit.

"Do they?" Little red riding hood asked the big dorky wolf.

"Th-They will!" Jaune tried to assure, "At least that's what my mom says-Never mind..."

 _'Smooth moves slim Jauney.'_ Cardin smirked while rolling his eyes.

"There there Little Wolf, someday a girl will like your name." The apparition said while patting Jaune's blonde mop of hair.

"Shut it Leo." Jaune growled under his breath at the apparition while listening to Ruby laugh.

"And I'm Cardin Winchester, also known as Sir Sarcastic." Cardin spoke up after not saying a word the whole time they've been walking. The mace user had finally come to the conclusion she MIGHT be worth the effort.

"Sir Sarcastic?" Ruby questioned the large knight.

"I was knighted by the Queen of Badassery, so you know it's official." Cardin put up his scroll and crossed his arm's while looking rather smug, making the silver eyed girl laugh some more.

"Well I'm Ruby Rose, and this..." The small gril reached behind her back and took off the red metal thingy.

 _'What the hell is she do-'_ The knights thought before their eyes widened.

 **Slice!**

"Whoa!" Jaune backed up next to his friends who both had shocked expression's.

"Is my sweetheart, Crescent Rose." The girl said proudly with a big smile.

 _'If that's your 'sweetheart' I'd hate to see your 'lover'.'_ Sir Sarcastic thought while scowling at the very dangerous and obviously upgraded farm tool.

"I-Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked while pointing at the object with both hands.

 _'Why do all the woman we know have to own awesome weapons?'_ The swordsmen thought while looking at the emasculating weapon clutched in the small girls hands.

"It's also a fully customizable, high impact, sniper rifle." The girl said while hoisting the giant mechanical scythe up into her hands like it's nothing.

 _'Not a herbivore, defiantly not a herbivore.'_ The Little Wolf thought while ogling at the big red scythe of doom.

""So it's also a gun?"" The knights asked in synch.

Leo and Ruby laughed as the two knight's gave each other a glare.

 _'I hate it when we do that!'_

They thought the exact same thing as well.

"Yup! it's also a gun!" Ruby said as she continued to giggle.

The knights pouted at Ruby while striking the same crossed arm pose. Ruby couldn't help but roll her eyes and think of how much more comfortable she is with these guys then most people. Jaune's really nice and a bit of a dork, but she's like that to. And Cardin looked scary to her at first, but he seems pretty funny now even if his smirks and grin's are scary still.

"Well I showed you guy's mine, so show me yours!" Said the weapons maniac while pointing at Jaune's scabbard.

"Well I got a sword and shield, they're named Crocea Mors. They were used by my great great grandfather during a war and have been in the family ever since." The blonde knight pulled out his blade and unfurled his kite shield.

"Oooo, so what do they do?" The scythe wielder asked while inspecting the old blade.

"Well the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it... I can just, put it away." Explained the swordsmen lamely.

"Won't it weigh the same?" Ruby looked at the swordsmen curiously.

"Yeah it does..." The defeated knight hung his head.

"What about the sword on your back?" Ruby asked while eyeing orange rapped black hilt poking just over his shoulder.

"Show her! Show her!" The ghostly lion cheered.

"Go ahead and show her Star's Legacy." Cardin chuckled and rolled his eyes.

Jaune drew Leo's completely black blade from it's sheath. It was heavier then his own sword and had always gave him a feeling of great power whenever he held it. Like it still has Leo's strength when he was alive.

"This is Star's Legacy, it belongs to a very good friend of ours." Jaune smiled while holding the blade out to the weapon's lover.

"Whoa... What's it made from? I've never seen a weapon like this." Ruby marveled at the black blade while running a couple fingers through the grooves.

"Of course you haven't! Star's Legacy is one of a kind!" Leo crossed his arms with a proud smile that made the knights chuckle a little.

"These groove go like waves up the blade from the center line, why?" Ruby looked up at Jaune for an answer.

"From what I know about it, the sword was made from a fallen star. That's why the metal is black, as for the grooves it was the only way to decrease the metals weight." Jaune explained best he could what their ghost faunus has told them about the sword.

"How does it do that?" The starry eyed girl questioned.

"Uh..." Jaune looked behind him and Leo came close.

"Repeat after me." The apparition smiled.

""They could use less metal when forging it that way. Because when they twisted the blade it lengthened it when hammered because the grooves are formed. This technique doesn't take away from the sharpness or the durability of the blade either."" The Little Wolf repeated Leo's words perfectly.

Leo had forged the blade himself and that was the only thing besides his name and the swords that he could remember of his past. Up till last month, Leo didn't know what kind of person he was thanks to his amnesia. Though he only remembers himself fighting a war against strange people wearing weird masks and having to always watch his back.

He never knew if someone he called an ally would betray him.

"That's so cool! The guard is even made of a super pure silver, and what are these marks on it?" Ruby asked her next question while running a hand along the wide rectangular arc that makes up the black swords guard, her small fingers dancing across the strange scratches.

 _'Oh you know, an ancient language spoken by the nomadic tribes of Remnant that has the power to control the elements as long as you have a second heart made of fire which is actually the heart of a dragon. That kind of obviously believable thing.'_ The sarcastic blonde thought while trying to come up with a reason for the marks. Thankfully Cardin really did have his back this time.

The mischievous knight tapped Ruby's shoulder to get her attention and put a finger to his lips.

"Spoilers~!" The Little Cardinal teased with a not-even-menacing smirk.

Ruby puffed her cheeks out at the barbarian, "Meanie... So what do you have?"

"I have a mace." The cardinal continued to smirk and added, "Want to hold it?"

"Yes!" The girl said with stars in her eyes again.

 _'Dust she is as simple as my big brother Genesis. Give either of them a weapon and they will forgive you for anything.'_ Cardin rolled his eyes with amusement.

Unclipping the large mace from his hip, he handed it to the small girl. The red themed girl struggled with it a little, but found it's center of mass and gripped it tightly from there with both hands.

"Smart girl, you found where to grip it. Do you think you can swing it though?" Cardin smirked at Ruby who gave him a determined nod.

 _'This'll be good.'_ Sneered the mace wielder as he kept an good eye on Ruby and prepared to catch the mace.

 **Swoosh!**

"Whoa!" The try hard red riding hood swung the mace only to throw herself off balance.

"Careful Little Mouse." The cardinal rolled his eyes as he caught the shaft of the mace and steadied the girl effortlessly with a smirk.

"Hehe, right-wait 'little mouse'?" Ruby blinked a bit as she asked and released the heavy weapon to the large knight.

"Your a little animal, and I like little animals." Cardin smirked and looked at Jaune, "She does look like a mouse doesn't she Little Wolf?"

"Defiantly a mouse Little Cardinal." The blue eyed wolf answered with a smile and nod.

"I third that notion!" The lion faunus cheered next to the knights.

"Why do you get to be cool animals and I'm a little mouse." Pouted the red head.

"Because your to adorable to be called something like tiger or puma." Cardin rolled his eyes.

"""What's a puma?""" Everyone present asked the cardinal who only sighed.

 _'Do they all play for red team?'_ Thought the done-with-this barbarian with his usual scowl.

"Sooooo, does it do anything?" Ruby asked while looking at the black bladed cage that makes up the head of the mace.

"When I press a pretty red button it blows stuff up." The barbarian rolled his eyes with a light scowl and Ruby's face lit up.

"Really?! So this is a red Dust crystal inside the cage! How big of a blast does it make!?" The Little Mouse asked her rapid fire questions.

"She's just like your brother." Laughed the blonde knight while his two pals chuckled along.

"What?" Ruby looked between the two boys she's been talking to.

"My elder brother is a weapons collector, he likes to collect the classics though." Cardin answered the curious girl.

"That's so cool! So did you make your mace with him?" Ruby asked yet another question with as much excitement as was humanly possible.

"Wow she asks a lot of questions." Leo said while inspecting the small scythe wielder.

"No, mines a relic like Jaune's from the same war in fact. Though I'm the one that gave it a name, I call it Mea Culpa." Cardin said with his natural scowl and a few swings of the mace with one hand.

"Really?" Ruby cocked her head to the side adorably melting everyone's hearts at once.

"Yup!" Jaune said with a happy grin.

"Pretty much." Cardin replied with a not so menacing smile.

"It should be illegal to be that cute..." Leo mumbled and neither of the knights heard him.

"You look a lot nicer now Cardin, you should smile more!" Ruby smiled before skipping a head of the group.

Cardin blushed profusely which made his good buddy's laugh at him. Even though the mace user sent them a warning glare they just continued to stifle their laughter. As soon as Ruby was a good distance away they started to tease the embarrassed knight.

""Cardin has a crush~!"" Sang the idiots that the Little Cardinal calls his friends.

"I'll kill you both with your own skulls!" Yelled the embarrassed barbarian before launching his assault on the teasing duo.

""AH!"" The ghost and blonde yelled and ran after Ruby.

"Get back here!" Cardin growled while giving chase.

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* * *

 _ **A while later...**_

.

A little while later after Cardin finally gave up trying to kill his best friend and ghost friend...

Read: Ruby pouted and made him stop.

The group walked around a bit more and the mace touting menace continued to work on the map again. The trio of Heart of Will users enjoyed the young girls company. It's like they had a little Koko now.

That was far less violent and openly nice.

As they entered the auditorium where the ceremony was being held they couldn't help but notice all the people.

"Isn't this a little to many? I thought Beacon only accepts up to 48 people per school year..." Jaune said while looking at all his companions.

"Actually the Vale Council decided they want to expand the walls ten years from now. So they increased the budgets of all the combat schools to admit more students. Now their should be around 72 students attending Beacon." The Little Mouse told them proudly.

 _'By the Divine Dragons, how can this small girl be this adorable?! It HAS to be a crime or part of some evil plot!'_ Leo thought while watching the possibly dangerous red themed girl.

Cardin grinned at the scythe wielder and roughed up her short hair a little, "Thanks for telling us Little Mouse."

"H-Hey!" Ruby batted the teasing cardinals hand away.

"Ruby!" Someone called out from the crowd and the group of misfits turned to the voice.

There they saw a blonde haired girl in slightly revealing clothes waving at them all. Her lilac eyes were really strong and her smile was as cheerful as Leo's. But then her smile started to fade and her waving slowed down when she spotted the two boys that are standing close to her sister.

Good news is she can't see the shirtless and shoeless ghost leaning his arm on Ruby's head.

"Oh! That's my sister! I-I'll see you guys after the ceremony!" Ruby said to the group and ran to her sister, making the dramatic ghost fall to the floor with flailing arms.

"Whoa!" Leo yelped but his friends weren't even paying attention to him.

The blonde girl didn't stop looking at them with her hard gaze until Ruby was right next to her.

 _'She looked like she was silently telling us that she is will kill us if we get close to Ruby.'_ The burnt orange knight sighed.

Then the Little Mouse's sister had sent them a protective glare over her shoulder and motioned that she's watching them as soon as Ruby was distracted.

"Oh Dust..." Jaune said with wide eyes at the blonde women.

"We are so screwed." Cardin groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"No kidding, she has the eyes of someone that doesn't give empty threats." Leo laughed fearfully while looking at the protective lilac eyes trained on his bestfriends.

 _'I'm kind of happy I'm a ghost if I don't have to worry about her killing me.'_ The lion couldn't help but think with slight relief.

"Where are we going to find another nice quirky girl to talk to?" Groaned the blonde knight as his best pals shrugged at the question.

As the knight duo made their way into the crowd, something caught Leo's orange eyes. What he witnessed is a red headed girl looking at Jaune curiously. Leo stopped to watch her for a few seconds, he couldn't tear his gaze and didn't know why. She looked so familiar, but at the same time... so different.

She looked like somone he was afraid of when he was alive, but couldn't for the _death_ of him remember who...

"Come on Casper, we need to find the Little Sparrow." The miffed cardinal called out to the spaced out apparition who nodded hesitantly.

"Y-Yeah!" Leo floated after them, but not before looking at the girl one last time.

 _'She has a strong heart, a really strong one. There is also a small flame, but it is far from manifesting into a second heart and might not at all.'_ The worried ghost felt a sharp pain in his chest like he was really sad and afraid of the memory, like it was evil...

 _'I hope it doesn't at all for her sake, looking human and not actually being considered one is hard to accept.'_ The lion looked down then shook his head before chasing after his friends.

.

* * *

 _ **A few minutes later...**_

.

"You see her yet Leo?" The barbarian knight called out to the ghostly lion who was floating above the crowd.

"No! I don't see any ice, snow, or even a little bit of frost!" Leo called down to his buddies who were looking around the area as well.

"Little Sparrow should be here, she's always right on schedule..." Jaune stated while he continued to look for anything cold or white.

"What are you dolts doing?" A very familiar, annoyed, and female voice asked.

"Little Sparrow! You're here!" The blonde idiot cheered and gave his favorite ice princess a big warm hug.

 _'I was starting to worry her father changed his mind!'_ The blonde knight was so happy he couldn't contain it anymore and just had to express his joy!

Weiss on the other hand... immediately clamed up at the contact.

The Little Sparrow could hear the sounds of Atlas in the background, cold and uninviting. She could feel the bite of the icy north wind on her skin that always gave her solace in her frigid home, but the feeling started to fade. It was being melted away by the heat of a blonde dolt rapping her lithe form in his surprisingly very warm and strong arms.

"What's the matter snow sparrow? You look pretty, FROZEN." The cardinal chuckled at the icy little sparrow trapped in the happy blonde's embrace.

At the sound of the barbaric dolt's idiotic and offending pun, the now pissed ice princess regained bodily control.

"Unhand me you dunce! I never said you could touch me!" Rapidly growing red with anger and embarrassment from the sudden contact, Weiss did the only thing she could.

 **THUD!**

 **THUNK!**

Poking Jaune in the side with her fingers Weiss was able to make him laugh and squirm, loosening his grip. Then as quick as a very pissed off heiress can move, the Little Sparrow darted her hands between Jaune's arms and forced them off. Now taking one of Jaune's arm's with both hands she ducked under it and twisted the appendage. The blonde knight was now forced to surrened his arm and let her pin it against his back. She wasn't done there though, Weiss delivered a swift kick to the back of one of his knees. Forcing the poor boys legs to fold under him so he was below her gaze.

Now the blonde knight's well being was firmly in the clutches of the angered Little Sparrow.

"Never!" Weiss emphasiezed by twisting her blonde prisoner's arm and getting a pained yelp from the poor boy.

"Touch me without permission." Hissed the heiress next to his ear.

"Okay! Okay! Please just let go!" Begged to once ecstatic knight.

"That's the second time she's done that to you!" Cackled the lion faunus, wishing the heiress could hear him.

 _'You think he'd have remembered she'd do that after the first time.'_ The amused barbarian shook his head with a chuckle.

 _'It's just like the day we met two years ago... How the hell did I forget that?'_ The sore blonde dolt thought while pulling himself off the ground.

"Good, and never touch me again without consent." Weiss had her icy glare on that made the sore dolt nod through his pain.

"Ow." Deadpanned the blonde while moving his aching shoulder, "So uh, how have you been doin-" Jaune tried to say something, but Weiss cut him off with a raised finger.

"Hold that thought, I have a little red dunce to give a tongue lashing." The personified blizzard grit her teeth and stromed off.

The trio raised a brow as they watched the white themed girl go over to where Ruby and her dangerous sister are standing. Deciding it would be worth it to eavesdrop, the trouble trio followed behind cautiously. If the Little Sparrow or the Little Mouse found them, they would be so screwed. Especially since the Little Mouse's sister looks like she would reck a nightclub just to find her little sister.

As soon as they found a good spot near Weiss and Ruby, they new they made the right choice.

"YOU!" Weiss yelled and Ruby leapt into her sisters arms.

"Oh God it's happening again!" The Little Mouse yelped while being held bridal style by her blonde sister.

 _'I knew they/we were similar, but that's a bit to similar.'_ Cardin and Jaune thought respectably.

"By the Eight Divines! Ruby is just like you Little Wolf!" The ghostly lion vocalized their thought and got a laugh out of them.

"Your lucky we didn't get blown off the side of the cliff." Weiss said with a bit of bite to the girl.

"Oh my God, you actually exploded." The scary blonde lady said to her terrified sister that was quivering in her arms.

"It was an accident!" Ruby yelped while getting out of her sisters grasp.

"Hahahahaha!" The lion was laughing so hard he would be crying if he wasn't already dead!

 _'So the explosion was not just the Little Mouses doing, but the Little Sparrow's to? Oh man I wish I was there for that!'_ The burnt orange hot-head grinned mischievously.

 _'That explains the Schnee Dust containers leaving the scene. So The Little Sparrow was the cause of the explosion? Or was it the Little Mouse? Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been someone else like that black haired girl... This requires further investigation.'_ The blonde detective struck a thinking pose and inspected the possible culprits in front of him.

"What's this?" The scared Little Mouse asked curiously.

Weiss had just thrusted a Schnee Dust Company pamphlet infront of the groups lovely new friends face.

"By the Divines, she's going to do the thing." The apparition smiled like an idiot while the knight duo put their hands over their mouths for the coming howls of laughter.

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or-" Weiss went on her high speed spiel about company policy with precision that still astonishes them today. The trio of Jaune, Cardin, and Leo didn't need to see Ruby's face to know her expression. They had to go through that entire speech themselves not to long ago when they were messing with some Dust and dangerous plants, blast roots to be specific. They nearly destroyed her hotel room and got a really long lecture from her as well as that pamphlet.

Well Leo was just present for the explanation, but he still listened.

At that time, the Little Sparrow was talking almost as fast as their Master when she doesn't sleep and only drinks coffee for three days straight to reach a dead line. They really hate it when she does that, she's more likely to shoot them with 'Blonde Roast Bullets'...

"Uuuuuh?" Little red riding hood looked at the snow white heiress dumbly.

"Do you really want to make this up to me?" Weiss asked with annoyance.

"Absolutely?" Ruby replied to the icy sparrow while backing off a little bit.

"Then read this and never speak to me again." The heiress said to the plebian while thrusting the pamphlet into her hands.

"That's WEISS cold." Cardin couldnt' help but whisper that and all three boys started the snigger.

Then the scary blonde's head started to swivel around as if searching for something. Her lilac eyes were narrowed and looked absolutely focused. The knight duo quickly executed their escape plan and went straight back to the spot they were at before.

As the knights and ghost escaped, Ruby noticed her sister's odd behavior.

"What's the matter sis?" Ruby tried to follow her sisters gaze to find what ever she was looking for.

"I feel like there was a pun... and laughing." Her lilac eyes continued to search for the source keenly.

Weiss' eyes widened and searched around the area as well while the sisters were distracted with each other. Soon the heiress spotted her dolts fleeing perfectly without bumping into anyone. Which is quite the achievement for a guy who's practically a tree and another guy that trips on air. She has to hand it to her dolts...

 _'They have the greatest survival skills ever... of all time.'_

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head at that last thought.

 _'Great, now I sound like the dolts...'_ She groaned and returned to her conversation with the red headed dolt.

.

* * *

 _ **Back where they met Weiss...**_

.

They watched Weiss and Ruby talk from a distance for a little bit as they waited for the Headmaster to show up. They have no idea who it is, but the wait is killing them because their Master said it was someone they've known for a while.

And since her house gets a LOT of visitors they have no clue.

"Who do you think it is?" The ghostly lion asked his companions as they all watched the stage.

"May the Divine Dragon's forbid it being Peter, I don't think we'd be able to survive that..." Groaned the blonde who very much wants nothing crazy to happen for a little while.

"Yeah Peter would get us killed in the first week, but I'd rather have Peter then the Wise Owl. Master said he was using her for information and trying to find the relic sites of the Heart of Will users from the legends they'd talk about." The cardinal frowned at the mear mentioning of the Wise Owl's true intentions.

"Yeah, that would suck. Wise Owl would catch onto us in-" The blonde knight didn't even get to finish before his eyes widened. He wasn't alone either, Cardin and Leo were staring blankly as well towards the stage.

There in the spotlight, was Wise Owl Ozpin.

A man considered dangerous, and therefore a carnivore, to the nomadic tribes.

"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and aquire new skills-and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose-direction." The Wise Owl they hoped not to see for a long while paused and scanned the crowd of hunter hopefuls.

His eyes fell on the two boys he has come to know quite well over the last few years. Even without Aura they have survived harsh training with great effort, unlike any students he's known in all his years of teaching. Though they may cause more trouble then Peter and Oobleck, he has high hopes for them in becoming great Hunters since they bare great resolve in the face of life threatening danger. Even if they are far behind in aspects of Aura, but never the less, he believes they will persevere.

The silver haired Headmaster grew a small smile that two boys returned falsly. Though the silver haired Headmaster didn't seem to notice.

Hopefully...

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin finished and walked off the stage. Soon a platinum blonde women they never met before took his place.

"Little Wolf..." Cardin said with a steely tone.

"Yeah?" Jaune wasn't much better, and even Leo's sunshiny disposition was strained now.

"We can't let Ozpin know." There was a hint of guilt in his tone.

"Yeah... And Master has some explaining to do as well. She knew he was the Headmaster so she has to have a reason for not telling us." Jaune nodded numbly as the women asked for silence in the room.

"What if she doesn't have a good reason?" The ghost asked his friends curiously.

""Then we'll be the ones doing the shooting."" The knights said with frustration while Leo laughed nervously and gave them two thumbs up.

 _'With your guys horrible aim you wouldn't even hit her, but you would hit everything AROUND her... good thing I'm already dead.'_ The worried ghost thought before turning his attention to the stage once more.

The blonde women soon started her part of the opening speech.

"As some of you know, we have been given a chance to train more Hunter's and Huntresses. We are now able to accept up to 72 new students instead of 48 thanks to the raise in budget from the Vale Council. This is in anticipation of a future campaign to expand the walls ten years from now. Because of the dramatic increase of students, we have had to change initiation and some of the functions in the academy itself. Now there will be three housing and academic groups: Emerald, Topaz, and Amethyst. These groups are not competitive, and will only serve as a way for us to manage your schooling for the next four years." The strong women with a riding crop said while scanning the crowd with her piercing green eyes.

"As for the initiation itself, you all will find out more tommorow when a message is sent to your scrolls in the morning. I will tell you this though, your initiation will affect the new ranking system for students that the Council's from each of the four Kingdoms has established. This system will determine who you battle in combat class, the missions your allowed to take, access to advanced training rooms, and other things as well." The women adjusted her glasses and her eyes stopped on the knight duo.

 _'Does she know us?'_ Jaune could see the recognition in her very intimidating green eyes.

 _'Ozpin must have told her about us, not good. I know I said before that I'm unsure about those 'Divine Dragons', but... if the eight of you are real then please keep Ozpin from figuring out what the fuck we are. I kind of like living, it's pretty nice.'_ Cardin grit his teeth and clenched his fists all while keeping his natural scowl square on his face. Hiding his inner turmoil with his usual grumpy appearance.

"Note that more information on this will also be provided in the message that you will receive tomorrow. For now you will sleep in the ballroom and await your initiation, you are all dismissed." She said while still staring at the duo.

"Little Cardinal." The tired and worried wolf said while just staring at the stage.

"Yeah Little Wolf?" The equally tired and worried cardinal responded while doing the same.

"How the hell are we going to keep a secret from the Wise Owl in his own school? The guy treats life like a chess game, and he always kick's our asses at that." Sighed the blonde swordsmen heavily.

"Rule number 10: You only ever lose when you give up." Leo said to his friend's with a bright smile as his ghostly lion's tail swished behind him.

"Then we're just going to have to win his little 'chess game'." Weiss said as she walked up to her dolts.

""Hell yeah we are."" The duo said with a steely tone at Weiss who nodded to them with satisfaction.

"But I do have a question for you Little Sparrow." Said the blonde detective with a little glare.

The two birds shared a look and then looked back at their usually dorky friend. He was standing with his arms crossed and looked slightly pissed. This is a very rare occurrence that Weiss has yet to see and Cardin could count on his fingers the times he's seen his buddy like this. Needless to say it peaked their interest rather quickly.

"What might that be?" Weiss asked as students went past them and chattered loudly, concealing their conversation.

"You knew Ozpin was the Headmaster and never told us, why?" The blonde boy grew a wolfish grin as the sparrows eyes widened.

"So what does Master have planned for us?" Jaune Arc, Ace Detective, asked the obviously guilty and surprised girl.

 _'Note to self: Jaune is probably the most reliable person here when it comes to mystery solving. The barbaric dolt was not jokeing about that uncanny skill.'_ The Little Sparrow thought with a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I didn't know you already knew him or even that he was lying to Koko till I visited last month. But yes, Koko had me keep it a secret from the both of you. Though I don't acutally know why, only that it has something to do with you both and what we talked about last month. That's all I know, and I swear to it on my pride as a Schnee." Weiss answered the wolf's question while the cardinal just spectated.

Jaune sighed, "Well, since Master put you up to it I'm not mad. You to right, Little Cardinal?"

"Not like she could've helped it." Cardin rolled his eyes while scowling, "She'd get shot with Master's 'Blonde Roast Bullets'."

The unlikely trio shivered at the thought and decided to continue mapping their escape routes once they've left the crowed auditorium. Since Weiss is playing for their team, she's going to need to be connected to their shared map and everything else Genesis put in their scrolls. It's also helpful that the snow sparrow is relatively good at learning on the FLY(couldn't help it), it will only make teaching her that much easier.

As all this happened Leo was watching a girl with flaming red hair and green eyes he saw before.

 _'I remember the name of who that girl reminds me of, it was Mistreal... Jarl of Beasts and Fool's.'_

"May the Divine Dragon's protect her heart." Leo mumbled while staring at the girl sadly while his friend were oblivious to the distraught of the amnesiac ghost.

.

* * *

 **End of Chapter**

.

 **A/N: Time for the closing notes!**

 **So I've incorporated what I've learned from the recent episodes I finally watched to help with my own plot that I was already going to do. You can probably tell from that ending and stuff though.**

 **First off!**

 **This isn't a shipping fic and I don't plan on doing that sort of thing. Though I'm kinda mischievous so I might tease it a little bit. Although it could happen later down the line, but for now NOPE!**

 **Note:** **Jarl is the norse(barbarians/vikings) word for a ruler or chief, Jarl is gender neutral term as well. It is a title considered next in ranking to the King/Queen. They rule over smaller area's in the stead of the High King and take care of the more personal problems of the 'Hold' (territory) given to them.**

 **In some legends entire Kingdoms were ruled by only Jarl's because they considered their religious God/Gods as their High King. (Hint Hint)**

 **I know it's a lot of words to get used to, but it will only be used loosely in this fic. So all you really need to do is just think Jarl = lesser King/Queen and your golden.**

 **Onto Leo bits!**

 **Leo's sword, Star's Legacy, is actually inspired by a nordic smiting style and the show Avatar the Last Air Bender. The concept of it being made of a star is from Avatar and the nords were notorious for having grooves in their blades at one point in time.**

 **Just a little not-really-useful-but-cool trivia.**

 **Onto obvious questions!**

 **What are the 'Eight Divine Dragons'? Who are the** _ **"them"**_ **that Jaune mentioned? What does Pyrrha have to do with Leo's memories? Is Ozpin going to win his 'game'? What sort of plan does Koko have for the knights? What does it mean to be a 'Heart of Will' user? What did Jaune and Leo mean by 'heart of a dragon' and 'not human'? Who is Mistreal, Jarl of Beasts and Fool's?**

 **Most of this will be answered next chapter!**

 **Till next time! Laters!**


	7. Time to talk about 'Calls!

Arc: The Game Begin's

Chapter 7: Time to talk about 'Calls'!

 **A/N: You know the drill.**

 _ **(At the bottom A/N I'll be answering to some of your lovely (and very helpful) reviews!)**_

 **So currently I'm working on a bit of sentence restructuring of the first six chapters. I'll have those done sometime and probably put it into the description for the fic when they're uploaded. I'm doing this because originally I'd already planned on doing some changes after I got review's on what needs work.**

 **I've never done this sort of thing before so I was expecting people to help me improve with their reviews. That's part of the reason why I even wrote this fic in the first place.**

 **About this chapter though:**

 **I don't have much to say about it besides I'll FINALLY explain Calls and Voice Books. Leo has a little memory moment about his memories. Finally, Koko make's a breif appearance in Vale City to a recently destroyed club. That's all that will happen this chapter, but expect Cardin's bad humor next chapter...**

 **Who would have thought it could be hard to make bad puns or even good ones.**

 **WARNING: There will be cursing, sarcasim, Cardin Winchester, and Weiss Schnee.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it belongs to its respective owners and the same goes for all the things I reference.**

 **My OC's are mine, but I could lend them out if you PM me about it.**

 _"text"_ \- quote/memory  
 _'text'_ \- thoughts  
 **text** \- sound effect/Cardin yelling really loud  
\- text - Leo's messages/media(scroll's, TV's, etc.)

* * *

 _"Rule 1: Nothin's perfect!"_ \- Koko

* * *

After the ceremony the band of misfit's ventured around the campus some more. Weiss had proven to be even better at learning on the move then they'd previously thought. Only in a few minutes she was able to find good places to hide and really nice escape routes. It was rather unsettling...

Okay, it's down right scary how quickly she could pick up on something that took them years of practice. But with her tendency to spend more time learning then anything else it's no wonder that she was able to pick it up that quickly. By the time they finished teaching her, Weiss was a master of Koko's rule number 4: know your exits.

Going through the regular motion's of mapping, the group of four wandered the grounds for a few hours till it was dark and time to go the ballroom. As soon as they arrived they found the most unpopulated part of the ballroom and set themselves up for the night in the provided sleeping bags. They planned to relax as much as they can tonight before initiation tomorrow.

After all, tomorrow is Thursday.

* * *

 _ **The ballroom...**_

* * *

"That insufferable little runt and her bimbo brute of a sister..." Weiss grumbled as the Heart of Will using trio watched her turn the immediate area around them visibly cold.

 _'If I didn't have a Heart of Will, I would have been frozen to death a long time ago.'_ Jaune thought while thanking Dust and the Divine Dragon's for his Heart of Will's natural warming ability.

 _'Schnee Ice Lord Magic at it's finest.'_ Cardin chuckled darkly while watching some student's shiver slightly in their sleep as frost appeared on the window's near them.

Apparently while Jaune and Cardin were changing into their night clothes, Weiss was dealing with a ruckus. She had been trying to sleep the moment they all arrived to the ballroom, but Cardin kept on getting into little fights with other boys. Most of which ended with the mace wielder Atleasian Suplexing the poor idiots that were trying to take Jaune and his sleeping spots. Somehow the barbaric knight can cause more trouble in a lax setting then in a dangerous one.

This innate ability pisses off the heiress and Jaune to no end.

"Ruby isn't that bad Weiss, just give her a chance." Jaune tried to get his dear icy friend to look at his new adorable friend in a new light.

Weiss just sent him a glare that could kill, forcing the poor boy to shrink away from her slightly.

 _'I like Ruby, she's nice and doesn't threaten me with eye contact.'_ Jaune chuckled nervously and looked to his 'wisest' friend for help.

\- He's right Little Sparrow! Ruby is nice and kind of like Jaune! As long as you don't glare at her to much or try to freeze her to death, she could probably make a really good friend for you! - Leo wrote quickly on the dry erase board and showed it to her with a cheery grin.

Since the unfortunate ghost can't exactly TALK to the heiress, he was forced to write to her. For the last ten minute's that's what they have been doing. Weiss complains, Jaune try's reason, and then Leo gives a second opinion via his dry erase board. Surprisingly this system actually works to a certain extent when trying to persuade the ice princess.

Probably because Weiss is very conscious of other people's opinion's.

"Friends? As if she'd be friend's with me after I blew up on her for an accident. I'll be surprised if she even wants to stay in the same room as me." Weiss grumbled thinking that the blonde dunce and the ghost dunce might have a tiny, REALLY tiny, point on this matter.

 _'Doesn't change the fact I really don't like her.'_ The ice cold heiress thought while trying to come up with a way to NOT be Ruby's friend and just be 'pleasant' acquaintances to satisfy the dolts.

"Quit complaining, rule number 10 Weiss." Cardin grunted while going through a small little pocket sized book.

""You've only lost when you give up!"" Jaune and Leo said happily and Weiss rolled her eyes.

"If that rule actually applied to people who weren't crazy like you all, then life would be so much easier." Weiss sighed and looked at the strange leather bound book in Cardin's hands.

"What's that little book?" Weiss decided to ask in an attempt to get the conversation off the little red dunce named 'Ruby Rose'.

She's seen Cardin read books, but every last one of them was either on strange Dust altered plants or one of the books Koko would force him to read... like his school books. Cardin was never big on reading or studying unless it peaked his interest, and few things ever did that. So the barbaric dolt had often asked her to explain his homework the last two years they've known each other.

Vexing Weiss greatly but also giving her a welcome excuse to take a break from being an heiress to one of the largest companies in the world.

"Huh?" Cardin grunted as his thoughts were taken away from the book.

Looking up, he saw Weiss giving him an expectant look and her impatience showed in the form of her finger's dumbing on her crossed lithe arms. Jaune was sitting next to her and nodded to the larger knight before reaching into his own bag to pull out his own identical book. As this all was happening Leo was writing something down on his board quickly with a huge grin.

"Well, remember what Master said about..." Cardin drawled and looked around to see that most everyone was asleep beside them.

 _'No prying eyes, good. It would suck if someone heard this, tell Ozpin, and then we all get killed for being 'dragons'... plus Weiss since she knows what we are.'_ Cardin thought while scanning the area, inspecting each student's slight breath's that indicated deep sleep.

 _'I really don't want to be like Leo.'_ Cardin sighed a little at the thought of becoming like the restless ghost he calls friend.

"Said about?" Weiss leaned in close to the burnt orange haired knight.

"'Calls' and 'Voice Book' stuff as well as the other thing about what WE are." Cardin rumbled in a low tone just barely above a whisper.

Weiss nodded with a serious expression and took a look around herself. She knows it's supposed to be a secret and it could have dire repercussions so it's best to be careful. Leo tapped Weiss' shoulder while putting the dry erase board on the floor in front of them all.

 _'I'll never get used to the feeling of being touched but not SEEING anything touch me...'_ Weiss shivered slightly at the odd and cold feeling of Leo's not-really-existent-finger's on her bare shoulders.

\- It's his magic book! - Leo proudly displayed the board on the floor where everyone in their little group could see.

They could also see Leo's little doodle of a book with 'Cardin's Magic Book!' on the cover of it.

Weiss looked up at the knight duo with a skewed expression that was somewhere between done-with-this and why-did-I-even-ask. Jaune laughed at the face she made a little which got him a slightly confused looking glare from the girl. Cardin even snorted in amusement at the face she made before looking at Leo and motioning to the dry erase board with his head.

Cardin had noticed someone staring at them from the corner of his eye, someone with very aggressive amber eyes.

 _'Well this will be fun, I barely noticed her attention on us. So that must mean she's good at this sort of thing. I wonder if she's a spy from Wise Owl? Nah, Oz probably doesn't even think of us as a threat yet.'_ Cardin thought while thanking Dust for how useful it is to be paranoid AND have a Heart of Will for situation's like this.

"You want me to explain?" The ghostly lion pointed at himself dumbly.

"It's safer if you explain Leo, someone with long black hair and a bow has been watching us rather closely." Cardin sneered while looking at the girl a few feet from them in the corner.

Her amber eyes that were peeking over the top of her book shined briefly with surprise till it turned to a forced calm. The black haired girl turned a page in her book nonchalantly as though she wasn't paying attention to anything but her own book. Interesting enough, the Heart of Will trio noticed that her bow twitched slightly as they watched her. They just chalked it up to a draft from the window next to the girl, but that didn't change the odd feeling they had.

It's like when Koko wear's a hat and it moves from the twitches of her bear ears.

 _'You can't hide your secret interest in our conversation from me, or ANYTHING really.'_ Cardin smirked mischievously at the girl who he could have sworn she was pursing her lips with frustration behind the cover of her book.

"I don't think she likes us..." Leo frowned at the young lady who was glaring in the most secretive way he's ever seen.

"Cardin..." Jaune warned his fight happy friend who relented his teasing and allowed them to return to the conversation from before.

"Alright Leo, explain it so I can understand." Weiss said promptly while staring at the dry erase board on the floor.

 _'I don't care if she listen's in. She'll only get fractured bits of our conversation that won't make any sense at all. But I don't like her, she seems to have a grudge with the Schnee company from our small exchange this afternoon.'_ Weiss thought while drumming her fingers on her thigh's as she waited for the ghost to hurry up.

In Jaune's peripheral vision he saw the black haired girl raise a brow at Weiss' actions. The girl lowered the book slightly to watch them again. As soon as Leo picked up the marker to write his explanation her eyes widened ever so slightly. While Leo wrote his message to the heiress, the girl then put her book down completely and focused on the moving marker with narrowed eyes.

 _'You can look all you like, but you'll never guess that a ghost is the one writing.'_ Jaune thought while looking at the girl directly who just rose a brow at him in confusion with a little worry. Flashing the bow wearing girl an apologetic smile he turned his full attention back to Leo's dry erase board.

While Jaune was watching the ease dropper, Cardin was watching Leo. The lion faunus had laid down next to Weiss on the floor and was writing everything so she could read it easily... with his tongue sticking out the side and eyes narrowed at the dry erase board. The mace user shook his head in amusement at the ghost's expression and the serious face Weiss was making just next to him.

 _'Dust I wish Weiss could see Leo sometimes.'_ The mace user thought while eyeing his two friends mischievously.

\- It's called a 'Voice Book', it's the book that contains all a user's 'Calls' or spells. The book's are used more as a reference then an actual tool, but they're still needed because it's a good way to keep all the spells the spirit's teach them. Sometimes a spirit can build upon other spirit's Calls with their own to make one that's completely different or stronger. - Leo wrote out and Weiss watched on as the magic marker moved with a life of it's own.

 _'I really hate how I find this normal.'_ Weiss deadpanned while staring at the marker writing down the answer's she seeks.

"Don't they have set chants or something? That's usually the case from what I've read in books about things like this." Weiss asked towards the dry erase board and marker while Leo removed everything he wrote down with an old rag.

\- No, every person can only work with certain types of spirits, two types to be exact. Every elemental spirit has a different Call, and each Call can only be used with that specific spirit. When asked using it's special verse, the spirit grants the user it's unique power. The elemental spirit's bound to a Heart of Will user will remain with them till the day they die and follow wherever they go. That's why there isn't a set of Calls that everyone can use indefinitely. Because there may be similar Calls, but each of them will have completely different wording and can only be used with a specific spirit. - Leo wrote out all of this just barely on the dry erase board and Weiss did her best to absorb the knowledge.

"So basically what your saying is that every 'elemental spirit' has a different 'Call' that can only be used by the person they chose to have their specific ability. And that every user of this 'magic' has the ability to only use two types of elements... how many types of element's are there exactly?" Weiss shortened Leo's explanation as the ghost erased his previous words.

"Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Wood, Light, and Dark are all the elements. Making that a total of eight elements." Jaune answered her while Leo was erasing his dialog and Weiss nodded to Jaune to continue while Cardin watched from the sidelines.

"Jeez, my hand hurts..." Leo shook out his hand theatrically, then stopped and blinked before a big smile spread across his face.

"But it doesn't exist! Death joke~!" Leo sang out and Cardin sighed heavily.

 _'I'll never understand that guy's horrible sense of humor.'_ Cardin thought to himself while Leo finished up with erasing the board with the rag.

"My main element is Lightning and my sub element is Dark. Meaning I can only use Call's from Lightning and Dark spirit's." Jaune said as Weiss looked up from the dry erase board at him curiously.

 _'That's surprising, I thought Dark would be the last thing he'd be aligned to.'_ Weiss stared at Jaune making him fidget from the attention.

Leo tapped the dry erase board with the marker to get the trio's attention, having already started writing something down.

\- The element's of a person is like an Aura's Semblance, except they don't reflect the person's personality and instead reflect the strongest feeling's/desire's of their heart that MAKE UP their personality. Jaune's desire to reach his goals no matter the cost and his single minded attitude towards proving people wrong about him, make Jaune nearly the embodiment of Lightning that no one can control and will carve it's own path. - Leo had written out and Weiss rose a brow at Jaune.

"You're not wrong..." Jaune said with a sigh as he thought about desire to prove his old man and home village wrong about everything they ever said.

 _'And I WILL prove them wrong, even if it takes me my whole life.'_ Jaunt thought darkly as Leo set up the board for Weiss' next question.

"What part of his heart makes his sub element Dark?" Weiss asked with a straight face that didn't really hide her worry for the boy she's come to care for as a friend.

 _'She's getting better at hiding her feelings, but it still doesn't work on me.'_ Jaune smiled softly at Weiss in understating, making the ice cold heiress scoff at him while rolling her eyes.

 _'Must have realized I figured her out.'_ Jaune chuckled slightly while Weiss glared icy daggers at him.

\- His acceptance of everything that is wrong with himself makes him Dark aligned. Jaune knows what he's horrible at and always looks at it head on, but he knows he will never improve at those things. He's unclouded by delusion's and falsehoods because he only seeks out the good things in the darkness that surrounds him. Just like the darkness itself that always seeks out light. - Leo wrote with a sad expression as everyone peered down at the board.

 _'The way Leo wrote that was like something you'd read in a book or see in an RGP. Maybe it could even be the inscription on an ancient stone tablet about the future destroyer of the world... I could see Jaune being that, although a horrible one.'_ Cardin thought sarcastically while reading Leo's message.

"That's rather depressing." Weiss said with a frown at Jaune who merely chuckled sadly.

"Well, after we figured out my element alignment Master and everyone agreed that it's a very important part of who I am. Without that kinda depressing part of me, I wouldn't be the lovable doofus Jaune Arc." The blonde knight said somberly while staring sadly at his own Voice Book.

Cardin punched his buddies shoulder roughly with his natural scowl, "You may be depressing, but you have more guts when your stuck in bad situation's then most people. You always find a way to get out of it somehow when all hope is lost."

"Thanks." Jaune smiled painfully while rubbing his slightly sore shoulder.

 _'Why does he have to hit so hard?'_ Jaune thought while waiting for Weiss' next question.

"What are Cardin's elements?" The white themed girl asked the boy in question.

"My main element is Fire and Wood is my sub." Cardin said with obvious annoyance.

"Your joking..." Weiss said with a deadpan pointed at the barbarian.

"That's what I said, then we checked three more times and it didn't change." Cardin rolled his eyes as he rested his head on the palm of his hand.

 _'The bastards all laughed for a solid five minutes...'_ Cardin pouted while glaring out the window towards the night sky.

Leo tapped on the dry erase board to get everyone's attention again.

\- Cardin's main element is Fire because he is very impulsive and unpredictable. Fire is a force of destruction that grants new life from death. Cardin has resolved himself to make up for his families past, just like you Little Sparrow, bringing new life to it through destruction. His other element is Wood because he's solid in his belief's and won't change them easily like how a tree won't move if the roots are deep and strong. -

"So basically he's hot-headed and stubborn?" Weiss said with a smirk at the aforementioned stubborn hot-head.

Crossing his arm's and glaring at the heiress Cardin growled, "Watch it 'princess'."

"I'm not a princess." Weiss glared back coldly.

"Psst! Leo do something!" Jaune whispered desperately as Weiss and Cardin glared daggers at each other.

Looking up at Jaune, Leo gave the distressed blonde a mock salute before getting to work. Jaune mean while watched with a bit of fear as the glaring of his friends only seemed to intensify by the second. From the corner of his eye he could see the black haired girl reaching towards her own bag, possibly for a weapon.

Then Leo's words and dry erase board saved the day.

"Done~!" Sang the cheery ghost as he tapped the board on the floor to get everyone's attention.

Jaune let out a sigh of relief and the black haired girl returned to observing them, but kept her bag close just in case.

 _'I really hope she wasn't planning on shooting either of them. Cardin would be dead in a second without an Aura and Weiss would freeze the building solid with us all inside.'_ Jaune thanked 'Sirah, Dragon of Sun and Luck, for his great luck tonight.

Soon the group looked down at Leo's dry erase board to see what it is he had to tell them now.

But this time there were a bunch of little drawings that were arranged in a circle. It started with an ocean wave at the top that looked more like a swirl, then a small flame with a smiley face, a breezy squiggle, a little lighting bolt, a haphazardly drawn leaf, a dorky looking sun, and finally a solid black and completely perfect circle.

 _'How the hell can he only doodle the other things, but make a PERFECT circle!?'_ Jaune looked at the board with a slack jaw and wonder.

Leo then took out two different colored markers from Cardin's bag, one red and the other green. Leo connected the pictures with the different markers starting at the top. Red was the first marker he picked up and he connected the water symbol to the fire. Then the wind to the lightning, and so on all around the circle.

Making a red line between water and fire, wind and lightning, earth and wood, and finally light and dark.

After he finished with that he picked up the green marker. The ghost made little loops between the elements he'd put on the board. Water was connected to wind, fire to lightning, earth to light, and finally wood to dark. Thus the ghost finished his representation and advised Cardin and Jaune to help explain in a very professional manner.

"Your turn lazy butts!" Leo said proudly after capping his colored markers and folding his arms with a big grin.

"One of you better explain this..." The very annoyed ice princess said while staring at the dry erase board covered in doodles and color coded lines.

"Alright..." Cardin smirked at Jaune, "Jaune will do it."

Sighing at what he was expecting, Jaune reluctantly nodded and pointed at the water symbol and traced the red line with his finger to the fire symbol, "Water and Fire are opposing elements."

Then he moved his finger following the green line from fire to lightning, "Fire and Lightning are complementing, meaning they have a connection to each other."

"So the red lines mean they're 'conflicting' and the green lines mean they're 'complementing'?" Weiss asked Jaune who nodded to the heiress as she returned her focus to the board for the rest of the explanation.

"Conflicting means they are weak against each other. So if Cardin uses a fire Call it's best to counter it with water, that would cancel out most of the Calls power if not all. Also the Call's are usually a mouth full to say, but the effect's of some last a while. This is why we have Metal Heads to protect us while we say them." Jaune explained and looked at Cardin expectantly, making the larger knight groan.

"Alright I'll help... complementing Calls mean that if two elements that complement each other are used together they can meld into a different attack. Making a stronger Call and thus kicking major ass. Jaune and me complement each other in that I'm fire and he's lightning as well as our sub element's also being complementing."

"Are these Calls as strong as Dust?" Weiss asked with a little worry, these Call's seem like they'd be very powerful.

"No..." The three boy's sighed in synch.

Tapping the board again the brown haired and orange eyed ghost answered the question more thoroughly.

\- Dust is more of a pure, raw energy and it's WAY stronger. If you used a water Dust crystal against a fire Call the Dust would obliterate the Call completely. Though the strength of a Call all depends on the user's ability to understand the meaning behind elemental spirit's words. If they can understand what those words mean the Call could become closer to matching a Dust attack, but it would still fail 6-10 times. -

"That seems rather under powered." Weiss rose a brow at the explanation.

"It's more versatile then Dust though. A Call can do almost anything, it's magic after all." Cardin rolled his eyes and opened up his Voice Book to show Weiss.

"I only have two Calls. It takes forever for a spirit to decide if they want to stay with someone. The Calls I do have are really useful if used correctly and I've already figured out the meaning behind one of them." Cardin said as Weiss inspected the book with a blank stare.

 _'I had to sit in front of Master's fireplace for nearly three week's before a damn spirit decided to even give me a chance.'_ Cardin grumbled at the thought of all the trouble he went through for ONE fire aligned Call.

"I take it the words below the strange ones are a translation..." Weiss said while reading the very badly written poem like verse's of words below the weirdly written English.

"Yup." Jaune said to her with a nod.

"How do you even say half of this?" Weiss showed to them while pointing at the strange text.

"Well, we can read it naturally. Master say's that it's called Voi'Lie, which means Voice. That's why the book where we keep our Call's are called a 'Voice Book's', because that's the language of the spirits." Jaune explained and only got a confused looked from the girl.

"What do you mean by 'read it naturally'?" The heiress asked the boy's while trying to make sense of the strange text.

"Well, speaking and reading Voi'Lie is like second nature to us. Good news is that we don't actually have to speak it to use a Call. The spirit's can understand us just fine and all that, they just can't talk in anything BUT their own language." Cardin said with an annoyed glare at the book in Weiss' hands.

"It's basically English but with some different words for things and a few special case's. **'Li** , is pronounced **LIE** and is a **C** in the language. Which means that **Voi'Lie** is literally **Voice**. Don't ask me why because I have no idea." Cardin said and Weiss nodded her head slowly.

"Let's NOT, talk about that part..." Weiss said tiredly while looking at the rather confusing book.

After hearing a really exaggerated yawn, the usually grumpy duo looked over at their blonde friend who was stretching out his arms. Giving a quick look to each other, they decided to pack up their belongings. Jaune and Cardin put their Voice Books into their bags along with Leo's dry erase board. Weiss gave one last look to the girl with the book that was STILL watching them, and then went to bed hesitantly.

"Time for bed, night you three." Cardin grunted while falling onto the bed roll next to Weiss'.

 _'To tired to think...'_ Cardin thought while turning on his side to face away from his friends.

"Night." Jaune said from the other side of the petite girl.

 _'I'm so glad I brought my onesie, it can even make these old sleeping bags comfy.'_ Jaune thought happily while making himself cozy.

"Goodnight." Weiss said softly while resting her tired body... and aching head.

 _'Today has been physically, emotionally, and mentally draining... please let tomorrow be a LITTLE better.'_ The heiress pleaded while shifting around a little in her sleeping bag.

"Leo, watch our stuff..." Cardin mumbled to the ghost who doesn't need sleep.

"Aye sir!" Leo whisper/shouted and watched the trio's bags with determination as his tail swayed a little behind him.

* * *

 _ **In the corner of the ballroom...**_

* * *

"Who is Leo even?" Blake murmured as she watched the group go to sleep.

Blake had moved her bedroll to the wall and she was half tempted to just wait till the trio fell asleep and check out the strange books they have. Something about what they were talking about was really bothering her. The thing's Blake could remember the most were the words _Call_ , _magic_ , _Voice Book_ , and _Leo_. Though her knowledge of the conversation was limited to mere fractures because of the weird dry erase board and marker.

"A Schnee, Winchester, and Arc all being friends is dangerous. Schnee and their power as well as military connection's around the world, Winchester's cruelty with their own large sums of money and equally racist followers, and the Arc's connections to many Hunter groups around the world... I need to watch them." Blake narrowed her amber eyes and decided against looking through their bags.

The Winchester asked some 'Leo' person to watch them after all.

* * *

 _ **A while later with Leo...**_

* * *

"Hey, can you hear me?" Leo asked the sleeping girl.

He was sitting on the floor cross legged next to her bedroll. After the dangerous bow wearing girl went to bed, he came over to the girl he saw earlier today. Her bright red hair laid around her pillow and the scent of strawberries was strong. Leo doesn't really like strawberries...

They were his Jarl Mistreal's favorite.

"Guess not... but if you can, then please." Leo softly pleaded to the soundly sleeping girl.

"Don't listen to Mistreal if she whisper's to you, don't become a monster like her." Leo continued to plead even if she couldn't hear him.

"Hmm..." A sleepy voice groaned and he froze.

It wasn't coming from the red head, but a little way's down the line. Slowly standing and floating above the ground, Leo searched for the source. He quickly found it was actually coming from Ruby as she clutched onto her sister. The little red head had somehow made it into her sister's bedroll and was cuddling up to her with the blonde holding her lovingly.

"Yup, it should totally be illegal to act this adorable." Leo chuckled while watching them sleep with a bittersweet smile.

"Ruby's big sister reminds me a little of Koko, as well as Yin." Leo reminisced about the many battles that he'd fought along side the women Yin.

During Jaune and Cardin's Test of Mastery, Leo remembered a bit more of his past. Though he still doesn't remember the big detail's he remembers some of the people. One of the people in those memories had ashy tipped black hair, burning red eyes, and preferred to use two black short swords in combat that he had helped her forge.

Leo chuckled at the memory of Yin beating the crap out of him in less then two minutes when they first met. It was funny because she was also someone he trusted a lot when he was alive and would never abandon if she needed help. Yin always had his back and he had hers whenever their path's crossed during the war. Leo had saved her life many times since she always just ran head first into battle. Yin had always taken out more enemies then anyone would ever believe as well, she was a berserker in the purest sense.

But at the end of the war Leo had to betray Yin.

Not because he wanted to, but because Leo had to so she'd be safe like all the other people he befriended during those haunting years.

Being someone with the heart and soul of a dragon makes him the worlds enemy. Leo knows that at least since in almost every fairy tale written since that war roughly 100 years ago, the hero always kills the dragon. But the dragon's in fairy tales were portrayed to look like the eight Divine Dragon's instead of like mortal dragon's like himself. Because there was no real difference between a mortal dragon and a human or faunus except the heart and soul.

But Leo's always thought of himself as a faunus instead of a dragon, Leo refuses to think he's that different from any other lion faunus.

But he's a dragon to everyone else and Yin was human. Since that war started between the humans and faunus against the dragon's, Leo always knew he could never be real friends with those people he fought beside. Even if he fought for the humans and faunus, he's still a dragon and all dragon's are the enemy.

He remembered the time he had to fight Yin and just barely beat her without either of them dying. He remembers the battle's he fought with friend's who's names he hasn't remembered just yet. He remembered the crushing pain and the weight of his sword Star's Legacy as he fought them with everything he had.

 _'It hurt so much.'_ Leo clutched at his chest while gritting his teeth.

Leo quickly pushed down the pain and just looked at the girl with golden blonde hair, "I wonder what Yin Fall's great-great-grand daughter is like? She's probably a lot like you ya know. Eye's of fire and passion that never cease in the pursuit of ideals."

"I wonder how they will grow?" Leo said while staring down at the sister's with a real smile.

"Ruby seems really tough for someone so young and her sister looks just as strong, probably stronger. I feel like they will do some really important things in their lives and help a lot of people. Haha! I hope Jaune and Cardin don't have to fight them!" Leo laughed as he continued to talk to himself, his lion's tail swishing around lazily.

The ghost soon stared out the window to see that the moon was just barley visible through the window. Looking at a clock on the wall he saw that everyone would be waking up in a little while and decided to return to his friends. Before leaving Leo reached down towards the girls and pulled Ruby's sleeping bag over them both to keep them warm till they wake up.

"Peace and no sorrow." Leo mumbled with a smile before floating back to his friends.

* * *

 _ **Vale City, Downtown...**_

* * *

"What the hell happened 'ere Black Bear?!" Koko looked at the scene in shock.

"A blonde bitch came here yesterday and destroyed the entire club, that's what happened..." Junior replied to his trigger happy friend while getting hammered at his own bar.

The black haired gangster was slouched over the counter with a glass of hard liquor. As Koko came further into the building she looked at all the damage with a frown. Several light's were shattered and the majority of the furnishing was in ruin's. Even the floor was scorched in a straight line towards the entrance where a window was nothing but the frame with all the glass missing.

And for some strange reason...

The bar was left completely intact and had no noticeable damage.

"Well damn... whoever did this totally out did me." Koko said while looking at the shattered and scorched dance floor.

 _'I wrecked the place before year's ago after Cardin got kidnapped by the White Fang... but at least I had the decency to NOT put the guy outta buisness.'_ The brown haired bear faunus thought to herself with a bit of anger while looking around.

"No kidding, it'll take forever for me to get shit back together. Most my boy's are in the hospital to and some of them are pretty broken about how badly we got wrecked. The entire Triad was destroyed by a single girl in one night." Junior lamented while tumping his forehead onto the bar counter.

"Don't even get me started on my boy's that wen't with Torchwick and never came back... I'm worried about those guy's, they're like brother's and that's making everything even sadder here." Junior said as he thought about how much he want's to beat the crap out of Trochwick AND the blonde chick, but mostly Trochwick.

 _'If I see either of them again, I'll show them what happen's when you piss off the Ursai Triad... no, the Ursai TRIBE.'_ The gangster boss thought darkly while keeping his head on the counter.

Raising the empty glass in his hand while shaking it, his bartender took it and to get his boss some more hard liquor. The thug had the same depressed expression as EVERYONE in the once popular club for the more 'questionable' people in Vale. Junior continued to groan as he waited for his next glass to help drown out the memory of the event's from the night before.

"Hei Xiong..." Koko called Junior's name while taking a seat next to the hulking and broken man.

"I got some cash saved back and I'd be willin' to make a donation." The eye path wearing faunus said and Junior's head flew up to look at her chacolate brown left eye.

"Really!?" He asked with glee.

Then quickly narrowed his eye's at the author and gun fanatic.

"What's the catch?" Junior glared at Koko who sighed.

"A job." Koko said simply as the bartender gave his boss the strong drink. Koko put five lien on the counter and the bartender got the message. Koko gave him a cheesy grin and a thumb's up that made the stoic bartender and the other goon's smile a little.

Koko alway's knew how to make them smile.

"Job? You want my men for something?" Junior asked while taking a drink.

"No, I want to work 'ere." Koko said and Junior did a spit take away from the bar and chocked a little.

 _'She did that on purpose!'_ Junior thought while coughing hard.

 _'That was PERFECT! Cardin would be proud~!'_ Koko mentally congratulated herself with a smirk.

Then they noticed that the younger twin, Miltiades, was in the room helping to clean up.

"You want to work here!? Oh. My. God! Melanie come down!" Miltia squealed to her sister that was snoozing in her room, Miltia darted to the stair's in behind the back door as fast as she could.

As Junior watched his niece run to the back room, he looked sadly at the black and red clad girl's back. Koko could see exactly what was going through his head, her Heart of Will's enhanced perception made it impossible not to. Junior knew exactly why Koko wanted a job in Vale City and came to HIM specifically.

"So... it's going to be a war after all?" Junior asked somberly while taking another drink, still staring at the swinging door his niece ran through.

"Yeah, and it's gonna happen soon..." Koko glared at the counter as Junior swirled his drink.

"What about your boy's and the Schnee girl?" Junior asked the women who was just as protective as himself when it came to kinship and sworn sibling's.

"They're gonna be a big part of it..." Koko laughed bitterly as she looked into the reflective bar counter, absentmindedly running a hand over the scar on her right eye and down her eyepatch.

"What about you?" Junior knew the answer, but he still had to ask.

"I'm gonna lead the thing, more then sure shit's gonna be bad though." Koko looked at the man with resolve and he couldn't help but smile sadly.

"There really isn't a place for the Kilika or the Ursai tribe, is there?" Junior said and the bartender came back with a drink for Koko.

A strawberry sunrise with a little umbrella was placed infront of her, making the bear smile slightly at the corny drink.

"I thought it was 'Ursai Triad', what changed?" Koko chuckled lightly at the name Junior's father gave the group while taking a sip of her drink.

"Well... she has it, Melanie awoke and Miltia might to seeing as they ARE twin's. Now that we have a user it mean's we're a tribe again by the law of Divine Dragon Yark." Junior said while turning his gaze back to the door where Miltia disappeared behind to retrieve her sister.

"Fuckin' dammit... I thought the whole tribe's carnivore's were whiped out before they came into the wall's forty year's ago." Koko cursed under her breath and ran a hand through her short spiky hair.

"Well it look's like Dova chose Melanie to have it, nothing we can do if the Divine Dragon of the Heart of Will picked her. But why her? That's all I want to know and don't care for much else." Junior said tiredly while he continued to slouch on the bar counter.

"Fuckin' dragon's are startin' to piss me off. First they give me two lil' idiot's to train when I was only 18. Then I get my ass nearly killed doin' Ozpin's dirty work, endin' my Huntress career three year's ago." Koko glared at the little umbrella in her drink before taking another drink from it.

"Now I gotta train another Heart of Will user while leading a damn war agains' some new evil psycho's on the block goin' for world domination? Well color me fuckin' surprised that the damn Eight Divine Dragon's 'ave this much faith in a partly blind women with a limp." Koko groaned while finishing her drink and thumping her own head on the bar counter.

"I was going to call you soon, it manifested yesterday after the blonde wrecked the place... Melanie hasn't left her room since." Junior told Koko, getting her attention away from the war that's about to breakout in the shadow's.

 _'Uh-oh, wakin' up to that sort of thing is hard on most. Everythin' becomes so different from what other people see and all yer sense's get jacked up... poor girl is hyper sensitive and doesn't know how to adjust.'_ Koko frowned and asked a really good question.

"Do the girl's know what it is though? Or did ya keep it a secret to protect 'em?" The bear faunus asked as they saw the twin's come into the room.

"Kept it a secret, just knowing it exist get's you killed after all. All my boy's know what it is since some of their families had it before the Grimm attack forty years ago and have been heping her through it best they can... but none of us know how to deal with it since we don't have one ourselves." Junior sighed as they watched the girl's come over slowly through the wreckage of the club.

Miltia was holding her big sister Melanie's hand while talking to her tenderly. The elder twin flinched at the light's and sounds that bounced around from the glass and wood being cleaned up. She looked so scared to Koko it sent her big sister like heart into overdrive.

"How did she react?" Koko asked softly as the twin's drew nearer to the bar.

"Not well, she was bursting into flames for a solid hour before she finally figured out how to control it a little. Though the eerie calm effect of it was so intense it was obvious that Melanie was scared to death. She fainted as soon as the flames stopped pouring from her hands and feet..." Junior said with obvious worry as the twin's were only a few feet from them now and Melanie's eye's widened at the words her uncle just said.

"That's normal to 'appen, when my boy's awoke I was able to calm 'em quick enough... but she's gonna take some time since her second heart fully developed on it's own without someone else to unlock it." Koko explained.

Neither Junior or Koko took their gaze off the girl as she drew nearer at a quicker pace.

"How long?" Junior asked.

"'Bout a month, but I can prolly get her better in two week's if ya let me stay 'ere instead of makin' me live in a motel." Koko said and Junior nodded to her before the girl's finally stood near them.

"What are you two talking about?" Miltia tilted her head and her twin let go of her hand.

"Koko, do you know what a Heart of Will is?" Melanie asked and Miltia looked at the bear faunus in surprise.

Koko took the white and light blue themed girl's pale hand into her own with a small smile. After Koko held it for a few second's, the bear faunus took a deep breath and let the flames flow throughout her body. The brown bear paw of her Heart of Will appeared on her left eye and the twin's looked shocked.

"Yup, I'm a Heart of Will user and I'm gonna help ya out Melanie." Koko smiled as she flowed some of her flames into her hand clutching the girl's.

As the soft orange flames danced on their hands, Junior and his boy's thought about how thing's will be different from now on.

How no one would mess with them now that the Grizzly Gunner was on their side...

How they will finally be putting Koko's plan into motion against the White Fang nuisance...

How they will once again be, the Ursai Tribe.

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter**_

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Once again I did a LOT of things! And unfortunately that made a really long A/N...**

 _ **Leo's Moment:**_

 **Looks like I'm giving Leo a pretty important role, even if he's still a sort of 'support character'. Along with Koko and Pyrrha just like I had originally planned before writing this fic.**

 _ **Koko's Moment:**_

 **I know that in the show Junior isn't a good guy, but in this fic he'll be playing a supporting role in being Koko's 'employer'. More back story on the two of them will be done later on(maybe) and Junior's Club will be visited often by the knight duo till I find them a better meeting place. Melanie will be learning Heart of Will, but I don't think I'll be having the Ursai Triad playing a major role outside of supporting the main character's (Jaune and Cardin).**

 **And if you remember in chapter 1 I mentioned 'Ursai Triad', well this is it and they're the one's buried into the White Fang's bizz as well as Torchy's group!**

 **For those of you who don't know, a Triad is what they call Chinese mafia's. Junior, Hei Xiong, is a chinese mafia boss in this fic in other words.**

 _ **Calls:**_

 **So I finally explained Calls, though I'm guessing some people might think I made them to weak. But Calls can be used more then Dust can and have more abilities that are similar to Semblances, it's magic after all.**

 **As for the language the elemental spirit's use (Voi'Lie), I won't even be using it in this fic. That language was something that I made up with a friend who was stuck in the hospital and they wouldn't let us really do anything there. So we made a language and a couple short stories everytime I'd visit after school.**

 **So no worries about me writing a bunch of weird gibberish!**

 **As for the element's thing:**

 **Complimenting - Water + Wind; Fire + Lightning; Wood + Dark; and Earth + Light.**

 **Opposing - Water X Fire; Wind X Lightning; Wood X Earth; Dark X Light.**

 **Why?**

 **Complimenting - Wind moves the cloud's and the sea to move water through place's. Where lightning strikes fire is born. Tree's create shade or shadow's. Finally light makes thing's grow in the earth.**

 **Opposing - Water put's out fire and fire evaporates water. Wind moves lightning cloud's and lighting cut's through wind. When a tree dies it become's soil and tree's gain nourishment from soil. Light banishes darkness and darkness engulf's light in a never ending cycle.**

 **Hope that made sense of my odd element thingy.**

 _ **Dargon's:**_

 **As for the Dragon's bit, I actually came up with that AFTER I started writing this fic.**

 **Whenever I thought of the Heart of Will flame it made me think of dragon's. When I thought about how I was going to give the knight duo magic before I made this fic, it made me think dragon's and fairy tales. The story I wrote four year's ago with my friend in the hospital that's pretty much the back story of this fic had dragon's play a major role...**

 **See where this is going?**

 **In the end I decided that instead of making them from a rival sort of group with the rest of the world, I'd instead make them not even considered human because they have Heart of Will. It didn't really change much of the plot I'd originally planned, but it did give me a better reason then 'they can use a special/possibly dangerous power' for why they have to keep it a secret.**

 **By making them the most common enemy in almost every fairy tale... Dragons.** **But they're the mortal human/faunus type I guess. Not the fire breathing lizards of destruction that can fly.**

 **I thought it was a cool idea and I'm sticking with it.**

 _ **REVIEWS!**_

 **Replies to the ones I should have replied to a LONG time ago that I didn't reply to via PM for further opinion and or me being weird:**

Lazy Author with writer's block - **I like your name as well as your sense of humor good sir/ma'am, I salute you.**

Guest - **I hope you like the other Weiss scene's I've made so far and continue to support Weiss being the mean-ish heiress.**

hirshja - **Your opinion on keeping Weiss is what helped me decide since it was an excellent point. Thank you and I hope you'll continue to read this fic.**

 **Recent Reviews:**

lordofthenight97 - **If I were to pair Jaune, it would likely be with Pyrrha. I don't really know at the moment.**

Theunknown4299 - **I'm really going to enjoy teasing the Arkos ship. But like I said above I'll probaby do that ship if I do decide to ship anyone.**

Comchamp1998 - **Thank you! =D**

glenloc - **Teasing at a Ruby/Cardin ship was actually really fun to do. As for the title I gave Koko it was kind of on a whim. I can see where your coming from on it and when I was doing my restricting on chapter 3 I actually scrapped it the day BEFORE I got your review in my email.**

 **So I gotta ask...**

 **Are you psychic? And what would a Ruby/Cardin ship even be called?**

 _ **Red Robin?**_

 **...**

 **Yuuum~!**

 **(That joke was horrible and I'll admit it... as well as the fact that it made me laugh when I thought of it.)**

 _ **Sound Effects!**_

 **I'd like some second opinion's on the sound effects I do. I have fun writing them(sometimes), but at the same time it's one of those thing's I don't really put much effort into. Removing that with my rework wouldn't be any real problem for me so I just want to know if anyone is attached to them before I go ahead and take 'em out.**

 _ **Onto obvious questions!**_

 **What is Koko's plan for the White Fang? What is this** _ **'new psychotic group'**_ **Koko mentioned to Junior? When is Leo going to tell his friends about Pyrrha? Is Weiss ever going to give up on her last bits of sanity? What is Blake going to do about the trio of Jaune, Cardin, and Weiss?**

 **Most importantly...**

 **What's going to happen at Beacon's Initiation that is on the day Jaune and his friend's dread... THURSDAY!**

 **Sorry for the REALLY long A/N...**

 **Thanks for reading! Laters!**


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